The Demon Witch
by ANAYAS-CREATER
Summary: Sakura is in her 6th year Hogwarts w Harry & co. Seto, Mokuba, Yugi, and Ryou come to join them. But there seem to be several secrets hidden inside Hogwarts this year... SetoOC, Ryou OC, spoilers...
1. The New Recruits

**Anaya's Creator: **This story got deleted. I re-uploaded. Hopefully, I won't break any rules this time.

**Kaiba:** Due to the deletion, Anaya's Creator will no longer answer reviews in her stories and there will no longer be songs at the end of the chapters.

**Anaya's Creator:** Gomen, but I really do appreciate any reviews you give me. They always make me feel happy!

**Disclaimer:** Listen up, **_I DO NOT OWN YU-GI-OH, INU-YASHA, OR HARRY POTTER!_** If I did, I wouldn't be sitting in front of a three year old computer, typing in a hand-me-down sweater.

-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-

Prologue:

Kagome Higurashi once believed she was an ordinary Japanese teenage girl... that is until one day when she was forced down the well of her family's shrine by the hideous Mistress Centipede and into Japan's feudal past where she met dog-demon Inu-Yasha. Together, along with companions and enemies they made along the way, they collected all the shards of the Shikon Jewel (a.k.a. the Sacred Jewel/Jewel of Four Souls), a magical gem that gives the user unimaginable power. During the search, the two fell in love, blah-blah-blah, and had a daughter: Sakura and after the jewel shards were collected they returned to Kagome's time to raise her.

Meanwhile in England, Lord Voldemort is hungrily searching for power. And aware of the Shikon Jewel legend, Professor Albus Dumbledore goes to Japan and warns the Yasha family. The family is attacked by Death Eaters not long after and Sakura is left a ten year old orphan and placed in the care of Albus Dumbledore. Six years later, she is a witch in training at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and friends with Harry Potter, the boy who had defeated Voldemort when he was only an infant sixteen years ago.

After Battle City and the Kaiba Grand Tournament, Yugi Motou, Seto Kaiba, and Ryou Bakura are brought to Hogwarts. That is where this story begins.

_Chapter 1: The New Recruits_

_BANG! KA-BOOM! _

Thunder roared louder than an attacking chimera and lightening forked across the midnight black sky as bullets of rain pelted against the window pane. Yet, this uproar did not disturb the shadowy doglike creature that slept soundly in the corner on a pillow. On the large bed beside it, its master tossed and turned in a fitful slumber.

-8-Dream-8-

_She was back in her home, back in time, six years. The lights flickered as the family sat around the table eating dinner, then they completely went out._

"_Daddy, what happened?" she asked._

"_I don't know," her father answered as he got up, his hand on the hilt of his sword, Tetseiga._

"_Oh, it's probably just a power failure. I'll just go start up the generator," she heard grandmothers voice say. After several minutes, she didn't return._

"_Something's wrong," Uncle Sōta commented in a worried tone as a chill ran through the atmosphere._

"_Inu-Yasha... maybe it's them..." her mother said, a note of fear ringing in her voice._

"_I agree, Kagome. I can smell many approaching humans, but I also smell death. Something's up," he got up to leave with his sword at the ready._

_Her mother nodded, grabbing her bow and arrows, and following her husband. "Sōta, stay here with..." but her brother cut her off._

"_Sakura and I are coming too," he told his sister firmly and the small family went outside._

_The stars above twinkled like the eyes of heavenly beings and there was a slight mist hanging over the calm grounds of the temple in which they lived. Mirthful laughter sounded and pierced the once peaceful night and dense fog appeared out of nowhere. "Show yourself, you cowards!" her father demanded, brandishing his huge sword._

"_Heh, heh, heh, hand over the Shikon Jewel, Inu-Yasha and we may let you live," answered a malicious voice. A group of figures in long cloaks and masks over their faces emerged slowly from the shadows._

_The small girl suddenly felt her mother's hand on her shoulder._

"_There is no Jewel any longer; it's gone. Now leave this place at once!" Inu-Yasha ordered._

"_You lie, oh well, I guess we'll just have to slaughter your family and take what we want from you." Suddenly a flash of green light burst out of thin air and hit Uncle Sōta._

"_Brother!" Kagome cried as he fell to the ground motionless. "Inu-Yasha, it is them. The one the wizard warned us about." _

_Instantly pandemonium broke out._

_Her father charged at the unwelcome intruders as they began muttering strange words and flashes of light burst everywhere. "Kagome! Get yourself and Sakura out of here now!"_

_The girl felt her mother grab her hand and drag her away through the pinball game of life and death that had once been the temple towards the shed that contained the Bone Eaters Well. After they got inside, her mother slammed the door behind them before the strangers could figure out where they went. She was led down the steps and over to the waterless well. Her mother took out what looked like a glittering oversized pearl and placed it in her daughter's hand. "Sakura, take the Shikon Jewel, jump into the well, and get aid from the feudal era. I'm going to help your father." _

_With terror radiating in her eyes, she nodded, shoved the Jewel into her pocket, and climbed into the well; however, unlike the times before when she had gone with her father and mother, no portal opened and she landed softly on the ground with a thump. "Oh no," she whispered as she dug her claws into the earth trying to get through. "I can't get to the feudal era! This is bad." _

_Above her she heard the door of the shed open and the evil laughter could be heard once more. "Hand over the Sacred Jewel woman!"_

"_What my husband told you was true: the Jewel of Four Souls is gone," she heard her mother retort._

"_I have no patience for your excuses... Avada Kedavra!"_

_She heard her mother's scream and for a moment all was silent, then the loathsome voice spoke again. "Search the woman for the Jewel. Since the demon didn't have it, perhaps she does." _

_There was a shuffling then another male voice said, "There's no sign of the Jewel, Lucius. What a shame, we killed such a lovely woman for nothing._

_From down in the well, Sakura gave a loud unexpected sob and a moment later, she saw a masked man was peering down at her from the top of the well. "Wingardium Leviosa," he said and she found herself levitating up to him._

"_Well what do we have here? The demon's hybrid spawn, perchance?" he drawled, grabbing the back of the kimono she wore._

"_Put me down! Why did you kill my mom and dad!" she squealed as she fought to get loose. _

"_Imobulous," and instantly Sakura stopped moving from her neck down. "Heh, heh, heh, feisty little half-breed, isn't she, McNair?" the stranger remarked, gesturing to one of his fellows. He put her down and wrapped his arm around her to drag her out of the shack, laughing villainously, but it halted when another cloaked figure approached them._

"_Lucius, McNair, we've ransacked the house and there's no sign of the Jewel," _

"_We have no more business here then." The one who was still holding Sakura, the two men left the shack, as soon as they had the other one set it aflame._

"_No!" Sakura cried. _

"_Say goodbye to your home, demon-child," her captor jeered._

"_Put that girl down at once!" demanded a booming voice._

_Sakura's captor turned still holding her. The being who had said that turned out to be twice the size of a normal man and almost three times as wide. His hands were as big as trash can lids and his boots, as big as dolphin calves._

"_And what if I don't—Ahh!" the man cried out in pain as a set of fangs dug into his hand, making him drop Sakura who stopped biting him and ran over to her rescuer. __She had seen him tons of times before, he and an old man in half-moon spectacles often came to her house to talk to her mother and father._

"_Hey there, Sakura," the giant said, clapping her on the shoulder._

_She nodded in a dazed manner then lost consciousness._

-8-End Dream-8-

"Bark, bark," said a little blue dog-like creature as it jumped on its mistress' chest.

Feeling the pressure, Sakura opened her blood red eyes and saw her "dog" give her an excited smile with a thin black leash in between his cream colored teeth.

"I'm up Stitch **(2)**, I'm up," she muttered. "You ready for your morning walk, pal?"

Stitch dropped the leash at her throat and licked her face.

"Okay, okay, that's enough." The sixteen year old girl got up and stretched, the booming of the night's storm had faded away and a gentle pitter-patter of a light rain was falling outside the window beside her bed. She sat up and glanced at the clock on her nightstand, it was nine in the morning; normally, she didn't sleep that late, but then again she had been out for a long time last night. As she flexed her left knee, she saw the large scar from what appeared to be a large set of jaws. There was a permanent bend in that knee, thanks to the tendons not repairing themselves properly after the injury. Finally getting out of bed, she dressed, pulled her long white hair into a loose ponytail. She could smell fresh bacon and buttermilk waffles wafting into her room from downstairs.

"Come on Stitch, I smell breakfast," she beckoned, and with her dog at her heels she limped through her messy room to the stairs and slid down the banister. She stepped into the kitchen grabbed herself a plate full of food, then turned and saw someone in purple robes sitting in a squashy armchair with a copy of _The Daily Prophet_ in the other room. "Good morning, Uncle Dumbledore," she greeted, taking a bite of bacon.

The person lowered their paper, revealing a kind-looking, wise old man with long white hair and beard wearing half moon spectacles. "Not quite according to the Daily Prophet, Sakura. How was meeting our Japanese students with Hagrid yesterday?"

"Uncle, it was exasperating; and I'm not talking about the language complication you warned me about. They speak English very well, it's just that..."

"Just what?"

"One of them, Seto Kaiba, he didn't believe us, then he muttered something about fairytale nonsense and tried to leave."

"Did he, now?"

"Yeah, but I called him a dumb-ass and..."

"Sakura, that wasn't very nice, not to mention something a common girl would say to a man as high up in Japan's economy as him."

"In case you haven't noticed, Uncle, I am far from common." She gestured to a pair of white dog ears perched on the crown of her head, then continued, "I asked him the same question you asked me: Have you ever made anything happen, something you couldn't explain? And that must have struck something in him, because he came with us."

"Well, as exasperating as that was for you, are you still going to the Leaky Cauldron in a few hours to go pick up the new students and take them to Platform 9 3/4?"

Sakura sighed, "If I must, I must." She put her empty dishes in the sink, grabbed a large umbrella, and headed towards the back door. "Uncle, I'm going to take Stitch for a walk, okay?"

"Just be back by ten; I know you haven't finished packing yet," Dumbledore shouted as he heard a door slam.

-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-

-8-Dream-8-

"_Sanura, no my Sanura," _

_He was kneeling in a dungeon floor, surrounded by dark, dank stone, the only light coming from a small window way above him. A young maiden with white hair was gingerly cradled in his strong arms; a red river flowing from the countless cuts all over her body. Her linen servant's garb was torn and stained with crimson **(3). **Tears flowed from his eyes and into her bloodstained hair as more blood poured from her broken body onto his bare skin and ancient Egyptian priest's garb, tainting the once pure linen. "It wasn't supposed to be this way," he murmured into her red and white silken tresses. "How did it go so wrong?"_

-8-End Dream-8-

In reality, Seto Kaiba awoke with a start, his breath coming in short gasps. _That dead girl,_ he thought as he sat up, trying to clear his head. _She looked just like..._ An image of the albino girl he had met the previous day formed in his mind. _Like Sakura,_ he fell back against his bed in his room in the Leaky Cauldron, growling as she came to mind. _What's the matter with me? I can't get her out of my head. It seems as if I've met her before; it's as if I already know her even though I've only first met her._

He rolled over and tried to go back to sleep, but without success. The sound of the falling rain was too distracting. There was a loud whistle of a train passing and the room began to shake like a minor earthquake back in Japan. His eyes wandered to where Mokuba, his eleven year old brother, slept. Unsurprisingly, the young colt hadn't stirred one bit... that kid could sleep through anything.

A flash of gold caught his eye and his sapphire gaze traveled to his dresser. He saw the Millennium Rod lying there, looking pretty; maybe that vision he had seen while he was dueling Yugi was connected to the dream he had just had. No, all that hocus-pocus about him being a high priest in ancient Egypt was a load of crap, and the dream was just that—a dream, nothing more.

He looked at his watch; it was ten fifteen in the morning in Britain's time. Usually, he would be at Kaiba Corps or working on his laptop at this time, but crossing the time zones to England had made him groggy. There was a loud rapping on the door. "Come in," he growled irritably.

The door opened and as if his dream had suddenly come to life, Sakura was standing there. "Rise and shine Kaiba brothers," she announced loudly, leaning against the doorway. "Time to finish packing your things and head for King's Cross Station."

Kaiba merely gave her his classic cold glare. "Good morning to you too," she told him, rolling her eyes and shutting the door with a loud _SLAM!_

Over on the other bed, Mokuba awoke. "Uhnn... Seto, I don't want to get up yet," he groaned.

-8-8-8-8-8-8-

"So how do we get onto the Platform, Sakura?" Yugi asked. He was an incredibly short kid with spiky violet-black hair with golden bangs. His purple innocent-looking eyes looked skeptically at the barrier between Platform 9 and Platform 10.

"Just walk straight at the wall," she explained.

Ryou, a pale-skinned boy, left his trolley and walked up to the wall, scanned it over with his chocolate brown eyes, and knocked on it with his thin knuckles. "Looks pretty solid to me," he commented.

They were all gathered at King's Cross Station. Their luggage trunks were loaded onto trolleys, except for a black backpack on Sakura's shoulders. Ryou had a horned owl on top of his trunk which he and the others had decided to share when they bought it in Diagan Alley the previous day with their other school supplies.

"I knew it," Kaiba snarled. "This whole scam about having to come here in order to go to some magical school was a total lie and a complete waste of my time and money! Come on, Mokuba, we're going to the airport and going back to Japan immediately."

Sakura grimaced. Could anyone else possibly be more irritating than this CEO? She was about to really let him have it, but suddenly Stitch tapped her shoulder and pointed to a small group of teenagers, two boys and one girl. One, the tallest of the group, was a gangly red-headed boy with many, many freckles. The other boy was shorter and had blackish hair with vibrant green eyes behind a pair of glasses. The girl had bushy russet hair. Two owls in cages were perched on top of the boy's trunks, one large and snowy white, while the other resembled a tiny grey tennis ball with wings. A medium sized wicker basket was on the girl's hip, held in place by her arm that wasn't pushing the trolley.

At the sight of the newcomers, Sakura's eyes widened and one of her eyebrows rose as she thought of an even better idea. She turned back to Seto. "Still think I'm a liar, Kaiba?" she asked slyly, her red blood eyes clearly insinuating a challenge.

He approached her, his cobalt orbs trying to make her back down. "Prove me wrong," he demanded softly.

An odd half-smile formed on Sakura's face as she broke their staring contest and ran off towards the three teens. "Harry, Ron, Hermione, wait up," she called.

The three juveniles stopped. "Hey Sakura," the girl greeted.

"Long time no see," the black haired boy told her.

"No kidding," Sakura replied. "Could you guys do me a favor?"

"Sure," the red-head answered. "What is it?"

Sakura pulled them into a huddle and whispered for a few minutes. When she had finished explaining, the group pulled apart.

"We'll do it," the girl said, nodding.

"Thanks guys," Sakura walked back to Yugi, Ryou, and the Kaiba brothers, a small smirk on her face. "Ready for me to beat you at your own game, Kaiba?"

"I will love seeing you try."

"Just watch those three."

The black-haired boy with glasses lined up with the wall and began running towards it. At any second, the four Japanese students were certian he was going to crash into the barrier, he went straight through it.

Mokuba's jaw dropped. "That was unbelievable," he said, his hands clutching his long black hair in shock.

After the guy with the glasses went through, the girl went next, quickly followed by the red-head.

Sakura turned back to the new students grinning broadly, exposing a set of overly grown canines that made her look like a female Dracula with white hair. "Still think I'm a liar?"

Ryou, Yugi, and Mokuba shook their heads; Kaiba just stared at the wall. _That's impossible! No one can go through a brick wall!_

In turn, each of the boys grabbed his trolley and went through the wall until only Kaiba and Sakura were left.

"After you, Kaiba, I insist," she told him.

Seto adjusted his already firm grip on the trolley and began walking towards the barrier. His walk quickened to a run and soon he was charging full speed at it. At any moment he expected to loose control of the trolley and crash into the wall. He was ten feet away... five, he wouldn't be able to stop himself to prevent a collision... three... two... one and...

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**(1)**In Harry Potter Chamber of Secrets video game, the Imobulous spell wears off. So that's the way the spell worked here.

**(2)** Yes, this is Stitch from the Disney movie and series Lilo & Stitch; I don't own him either.

**Anaya's Creator: **That's the first chapter. I'll upload the others later.


	2. Strangers and Strange Occurences

**Anaya's Creator: **Kaiba, would you do the honors?

**Kaiba:** Here's chapter 2.

**Anaya's Creator:** Thank you! (eats a spoonful of her chocolate sundae)

**Disclaimer:** **_I DO NOT OWN YU-GI-OH, INU-YASHA, OR HARRY POTTER!_**

-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-

Chapter 2:_ Strangers and Strange Occurences_

Just as Kaiba thought he was going to slam into the barrier, he went straight through it. He turned and saw a huge scarlet train surrounded by crowds of people in strange clothes. There was a sign overhead bearing the words Hogwarts Express, eleven o'clock. Confused, he looked behind him, where a brick wall had once been, was a wrought iron archway with the words _Platform Nine and Three Quarters _on it. Then he saw Sakura appear behind him.

"Miss me?" she asked.

"Not particularly," he answered sourly.

"How sweet of you," she said with a playful smile.

"Come on, Seto; Yugi and Ryou have already gone to find a compartment for all of us," Mokuba called from up ahead.

"Well, you heard the kid," Pushing her trolley, Sakura walked off with Kaiba staring after her.

After a few minutes of walking down the platform, the group heard Yugi shout: "Hey Kaiba, Mokuba, Sakura, we're over here!"

The group turned and saw the King of Games and Ryou sticking their heads out of a compartment window. One by one, Sakura and the Kaiba brothers got on the train and took their seats in the compartment.

Sakura placed her backpack on the floor, drew out a black leather bound book, a quill and a bottle of ink, and began writing on its aged yellow pages.

The train whistle whirred loudly and, slowly, they left the station. As the train went out of the station the rain had gotten heavy again and thunder and lightening graced the terrain with deafening booms and blinding flashes of light.

Stitch, who had been clinging to Sakura's shoulder, crawled off, and settled down on the empty seat beside his master.

Kaiba stared critically at the creature. Sakura had claimed that it was a "dog", but only a complete idiot like that mutt Wheeler would believe that explanation. It had long, almost rabbit-like ears, with a small bob for a tail and forearms thinner than its back set of legs. If that thing was actually a dog, he was the emperor of Japan. "Sakura, what exactly is Stitch?" he asked.

"I've been wondering that too," Yugi said.

Sakura looked up from her book. "Well, I don't..." but she paused as the door to the compartment opened.

A pale girl with light brown freckles across her slightly pink cheeks, around Sakura's age, stood in the doorway. Her cyan blue eyes glanced around until they fell on Sakura. "I wondered where you were hiding, Sakura." Her white teeth flashed as she spoke.

Sakura looked at the stranger in bewilderment for a moment then got up and walked over to her. The newcomer had golden-orange blonde hair and was slightly taller than her. "Britts," she gasped. "What have you done to your hair! It used to be to your mid-back and now it just reaches your shoulders."

"I cut it; you like?"

"It's a surprise; I'll give you that," Sakura replied. "And you're still wearing that morbid pink sweater. You have no idea how much I want to tear it apart. Such a disgusting color pink is... Anyways, come in, sit down."

"It is not a disgusting color!" Britts retorted as she sat down next to her friend. (Stitch had moved to sit on Mokuba's lap.) "You're still the same old tomboy. So back to Hogwarts again, eh? Who are these people?"

"Oh, this is Yugi Mutou..."

"The Duel King?"

"Yep,"

"Wicked,"

"Ryou Bakura, and Seto and Mokuba Kaiba,"

"As in Kaiba Corp?" Britts asked.

"You got it," Mokuba said.

"Double wicked, I'm Brittany, but Sakura calls me Britts," Britts said. "Just be prepared for one ruddy load of fan girls when you get to Hogwarts, Seto Kaiba."

"Why?"

"Oh Merlin's beard Kaiba, don't be so dense!" Sakura exclaimed. "Even here in the Wizarding world, you're considered the most friggin' eligible bachelor."

"Oh, goody," Kaiba said sardonically. "I feel at home already."

Sakura reached into her backpack once more, this time pulling out a deck of Duel Monsters cards. "Then this aught to make you feel more at home then. You up for a duel, Kaiba?" she dared, shuffling her deck.

He snorted. "Me, go up against an amateur like you? Why should I waste my time?"

"How do you know if I'm an amateur or not? You just met me. Besides, don't tell me that you're afraid of dueling a girl like me."

"Sakura!" Britts chastised.

"What?" He's got nothing to lose nor do I," she retorted. "Come on Kaiba, no strings attached. I won't tell anyone when I totally slaughter you."

"Fine, I'll take you on. She reminds me of your friend Wheeler, Yugi." Kaiba growled, getting out his own deck from a pocket in his trench coat and shuffling it. "Prepare to be humiliated."

"Be ready to suffer a hard battle. You have no idea who you're dealing with." Sakura said.

"I assure you, Sakura, it's just the opposite."

They cut each other's decks and the battle began.

LP (Sakura): 4000LP (Kaiba): 4000

"Ladies first," Sakura said, drawing a card.

"I'm to assume thatyou are a _lady_?" Kaiba taunted.

She ignored him and simply considered her options. "I place a monster facedown in defense mode," she stated nonchalantly.

_A monster facedown, eh?_ Kaiba thought. _Well, let's see what I can do._ "I summon Sagi the Dark Clown (600/600) in attack mode and place one card face down." He chuckled to himself silently. _My trap card will totally devastate her hand and deck._

_His plan is obvious; he wants me to attack so that I'll activate his trap card. And knowing Kaiba, it's his infamous Crush card. I still pay attention to what's happening back home in the dueling world. _Sakura drew. "Perfect," she muttered under her breath. Her eyes caught a glimmer of curiosity in Kaiba's. "I summon Trap Master in attack mode. Using his special ability, he can attack your facedown card and, if it's a trap, destroy it. Flip it over."

Grudgingly, Kaiba turned over the card, revealing his Crush card, and put it in the Graveyard pile.

"Next I activate a magic card; Ragaki. This magic card destroys one monster on the field. Say good-bye to Sagi! Now, I switch my Spear Dragon (1900/0) into attack mode and attack your life points directly.

LP (Sakura): 4000LP (Kaiba): 2100

-Wow! Check this out, Yami. The duel's already begun and Sakura's taken out nearly half of Kaiba's life points. - Yugi said over mind link.

--Very impressive on Sakura's part, -- Yami agreed. –Let's watch and see how Kaiba retaliates.

"You got lucky that time, Sakura, but it won't happen again!" Kaiba stormed.

The duel went on and on without either side showing any mercy. Finally the duel ended with Seto winning, or so it seemed until Sakura activated a magic card that forced it to end in a draw.

"Damn," Kaiba muttered.

"Good show, the both of you," Ryou commented.

"Anything off the trolley, dears?" asked a voice from the door of the compartment A smiling, dimpled woman stood there, pushing a cart full of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, Drooble's Best Blowing Gum, Chocolate Frogs, Cauldron Cakes, and other wonderful sweets.

Seeing the anticipated looks on everyone, except Seto's, faces, Britts and Sakura both pooled their money and bought a little bit of everything, which they were more than willing to share.

The rest of the ride was spent getting to know each other and, of course, discussing the ever popular wizard sport, Quidditch.

If there was one thing Sakura could talk about for hours, it was Quidditch.

"I play on the Gryffindor team. Last year, we had to replace four members on our team because some stupid Ministry of Magic woman who kicked our seeker, Harry; the two beaters, Fred Weasly and I; and one of our Chasers, Fred's twin brother George, off the team because we attacked the other team after a game."

"Why did you attack the other team?" Yugi asked.

"The gits insulted one of our team member's family and mine. They deserved what they got," Sakura spat resentfully.

"You can't take what the Slytherins say to you to heart, Sakura. That's your problem. You take insults too personally and, with your quick temper, the result is normally a black eye or two," Britts scolded.

"But this year, we're gonna have the most kick-ass team ever, beat the pants off Slytherin, and win the Quidditch Cup!" Sakura exclaimed, jumping from her seat with a fist in the air.

"It will be quite amusing to see your pathetic team try, Yasha," drawled a taunting voice from the doorway.

"Malfloy," Sakura spat; her voice sounded as if the name alone were poison. "If I remember correctly, our "pathetic" team still whooped your slimy Slytherin butts in the final match."

"You got lucky," the boy said. He had a pale pointed face with blue eyes and short silver blonde hair. There were two other boys beside him, brawny gorilla-like boys.

"Go away, Malfloy," Britts ordered. "No one invited you and your cronies." The guys next to Malfloy flexed their muscles threateningly.

"Crabbe, Goyle, and I have as much right to prowl about this train as you and that filthy half-breed do, Trifler," he sneered.

"Then prowl away then," Sakura hissed, fuming. Red orbs flaming with fury, she leapt up from her seat; she grabbed the sliding door and slammed it.

A loud groan echoed from out in the hall and everyone looked at the door to find fingertips stuck in the door. Sakura had "accidentally" closed the door on the tips of someone's (probably Malfloy's) fingers.

Britts stood up from her seat and opened the door slightly so that the fingertips could escape. She turned to Sakura with an exasperated look. "Was that really necessary?" she asked in a firm tone.

"He deserved that. And if I hear one more crack from him about my heritage, or anything else for that matter, I swear I'll..."

A loud clap of thunder cut her off and suddenly the train hit a bump and lurched forward. Sounds of disgruntled passengers, human and animal, and luggage hitting the floor boomed throughout the box car as the lights flickered out.

When they returned, a rather peculiar situation was to be found. Britts had fallen into Ryou's lap and his arms were around her, the two of them blushing madly. Mokuba and Stitch had fallen to the floor and Sakura was in the most interesting position of all... She had landed on top of Kaiba, her hands braced against the seat on either side of him, his arms around her waist, and her face pressing into his neck.

Sakura shook her head a little as she came back to her senses, her lips accidentally brushing against his neck as she did so. Straightening up, she realized how close she was to Kaiba and she shoved herself away from him, unintentionally ramming her back into the edge of the seat behind her, making her feel a bit dizzy and disoriented.

"Ow," she groaned.

"Such a frisky little demoness, you are today, Mistress Sakura," said a tiny old-sounding voice in her ear.

These words immediately brought Sakura back to Earth. Ignoring the new throbbing pain in her spine, she got up off the floor. Suddenly she became aware that everyone was staring at her, and sent a glare as cold as Kaiba's around the compartment. "What are you all staring at?" she demanded irritably.

"Well, uh..." Ryou stuttered. "Train hit bump... lights go out... lights back on... Brittany on lap... you kissing Kaiba's neck..."

"I think what Ryou's trying to get to," Kaiba cut in. "Is, what's with the dog ears?"  
"Dog... ears?" Sakura stammered. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Britts (who had gotten back into her seat) gesture to the crown of her head. Immediately, her hands went to the top of her head and found that the blue hat she was wearing was askew. She sighed, took it off, and began to explain. "All right I admit it; I haven't been completely honest with you guys for the past two days. What Malfloy said was right: I am a half-breed... well; I'm actually a one-fourth breed if you want to get technical. My father was a half-demon and my mother was the reincarnation of a powerful human priestess."

Kaiba put up a hand to stop her and turned to the blonde girl next to him. "Did you know about this?"

Britts nodded. "I found out in my first year on accident, but soon everyone in the whole school found out, one way or another."

"And you were just going to leave us in the dark?" Yugi asked.

What looked like a large speck, leapt up from somewhere on Stitch's back and landed on one of Yugi's fingers. "I assure you young man, that Mistress Sakura has her reasons for keeping this a secret.

Yugi brought his hand closer to his face, staring at the tiny figure a little bigger than his fingernail. Quite frankly, it looked like an overgrown flea wearing clothes. "What are you?" he asked in astonishment.

"Myoga, there you are, you cowardly parasite!" Sakura said. "And where exactly have you been since the first week of summer?"

"Milady, I uh..."

Sakura rolled her eyes. "You ran off_ again_; how predictable."

"Mistress, how dare you suggest such a thing!"

"Oh, did you get lost?" Britts commented sarcastically.

"Take a wrong turn?" Sakura added.

"Get violently ill?"

"Did we miss any of your excuses?" Sakura concluded. "Oh, guys, this is Myoga. He's a flea demon that serves my family. His advice is fickle and he runs at the first sight of danger."

"But, my lady,"

"Whatever, Myoga; go back to Stitch's back or where ever you were hiding."

The flea gave an awkward sort of bow and jumped back onto the dog.

"Well, on a lighter note, this would probably be a good time to change into our school robes. Britts and I will step out into the hall so you boys can change." Sakura said, changing the subject. She got up and went outside the compartment door; Britts followed.

A few minutes passed, and then the boys filed out and Britts and Sakura changed.

When the boys stepped back into the compartment, they all resumed talking.

About fifteen minutes later, the train pulled to a stop in Hogsmeade Station.

"Attention, Hogwarts Express has come to a stop. Please leave your luggage and pets on the train, they will be taken to the school separately," a voice announced.

"Stitch, that means you stay here and cooperate with whoever comes to take you to the Hogwarts dormitories," Sakura ordered.

As the group got off the train, they got mixed into a mob of black robed students.

"It's practically raining pixies out here!" Britts exclaimed as she pulled her robes over her head in a futile attempt to shield herself from the driving rain.

"Firs' years! Firs' years over here," shouted a familiar voice.

"Mokuba, you go with Hagrid since you would be with the other first years." Sakura explained, gesturing to a gigantic shadow.

"See ya, Seto," Mokuba said, throwing his arms around his older brother and running off to the figure.

"Let's go grab a carriage and get out of this hell-storm," Britts suggested, gesturing to a bunch of stage coaches pulled by what looked like large black x-rayed horses with large bat-like wings.

With much pushing and shoving, Yugi, Kaiba, Ryou, Britts, and Sakura managed to pile inside one of the coaches before getting too soaked. As soon as they got comfortable in the musty straw-smelling transport, it began to move.

"What are those back skeletal things pulling us?" Yugi asked.

"These carriages are pulled by thestrals," Brittany explained, "You can only see them if you've seen death itself." She cast a sideways glance at Sakura, who was staring out the window at the peculiar black winged horses, not blinking.

/Let me take over, hikari. I want a look/ Bakura demanded over his and Ryou's mind link.

/Fine, but only for a minute. Don't do anything/ Ryou suddenly climbed halfway out the window and peered at the creatures through the driving rain. "I see them," he grunted as he climbed back in.

Sakura blinked for the first time in about five minutes and turned to Ryou. "Who did you see die?" she asked.

Quickly Ryou regained control over his body and with a slightly confused look in his eyes, only noticed by Sakura. "Sorry, what did you ask me?"

"Whom did you see pass on?"

His face fell and sorrow formed in his chocolate eyes, "My little sister, Amene **(3)**."

Sakura nodded sympathetically and Britts put a hand on his forearm in a gesture of consolation.

"I see them too," Seto said.  
"Did you see your father, Gozaburo, die?" Sakura inquired.

"Gozaburo was my _step_father," he corrected. His face darkened. "But yes, I did see him die and I wasted no sorrow over his death."

"You felt no remorse, I pity you."

There was a flash of lightening and a large stone castle with many towers and countless bright windows burning with light came into view.

"Hey Kaiba, that castle beats your mansion by a landslide," Yugi said as lightening lit up the sky once more.

As the carriages approached their new home, one question raced through the minds of all: _What gonna happen this year?_

**Anaya's Creator: **Chapter 3 is on it's way.

6


	3. Welcome to Hogwarts

**Anaya's Creator: **Chapter 3!

**Kaiba:** (types on his computer)

**Anaya's Creator: **I said: Chapter 3

**Kaiba: **(Holds up a sign)

**Sign:Disclaimer:**

_**ANAYA'S CREATOR DOES NOT OWN YU-GI-OH, INU-YASHA, OR HARRY POTTER!**_

_Chapter 3: Welcome to School_

Now sopping wet, thanks to the climb up the steps, Britts, Ryou, Sakura, Seto, and Yugi stopped in front of the great oak doors then sloshed into the entrance hall. They were about to enter the Great Hall when a firm voice spoke from behind them.

"Hold it you five,"

The group turned and saw a tall, stern-looking woman in emerald green robes with circle spectacles adorning her eyes. "Miss Yasha, are these the foreign students?"

"The boys are, Professor McGonagall."

"Well, all of you come with me, except you, Miss Trifler."

"I'll try to save you guys some seats," Britts murmured and with a disheartened look she entered the Great Hall.

"That's Professor McGonagall, the Deputy Headmistress, head of Gryffindor house, and Transfiguration teacher," Sakura explained as the teacher led them up one of the marble staircases, down a corridor, and into her office.

"Misters Bakura, Mutou, and Kaiba, welcome to Hogwarts," Professor McGonagall said. "Now, there are some matters I need to discuss with you all before the new term begins. First, each student is sorted into a house by way of the Sorting Hat. You three will be sorted after the first years. Mr. Kaiba, Miss Yasha informed me that you wanted to be able to keep an eye on your company whilst you are here. Our headmaster, Professor Dumbledore, has taken care of that."

She reached into the pocket of her robe and drew out two royal blue microchips. "He said that if you install these in your... what do you call them? Oh yes, your cell phone... and what's that other contraption called?"

"His laptop, Professor?" Sakura suggested.

"Yes your laptop; thank you, Miss Yasha. He said if you put them in those contraptions, they will be able to work inside Hogwarts. Oh, and once you've installed them in your devices, do not have them on during class. This is a learning facility, not a business institution; take care of business in your free time."

Kaiba took the chips from Professor McGonagall as she looked around at each of them in turn.

"The next matter concerns four of you, all of you will be taking the Ordinary Wizarding Levels at the end ofthis month.These exams will determine what classes you will be taking in your next two years at Hogwarts.To better prepare you new students, each of you will be paired up with a partner to study with, but that will be fine tuned later. Miss Yasha, you may take you place at the Gryffindor table and you boys follow me."

Professor McGonagall led them out of her office and back into the Great Hall. Sakura sat down between Britts and Mokuba (the Sorting was over) as Yugi, Ryou, and Kaiba were led up to the three-legged stool, on which sat an old frayed hat that looked as if it had been through seven wars and all other kinds of hell.

At the long table behind the stool Professor Dumbledore stood up. "It is my great pleasure to announce that this year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry we have accepted three foreign exchange students that will be starting off in the sixth year," he told them all. "First up Bakura, Ryou..."

The hat was placed on Ryou's head as he sat on the stool.

"Hmm," the Sorting Hat said within Ryou's head.

/Get out of my hikari's head you filthy dust mop/ Bakura demanded.

/Bakura, leave the Hat alone/ Ryou pleaded. An unfocused look clouded his eyes as he lessened his control on his body.

"Oh my, two minds in this young man," the Sorting Hat exclaimed curiously over the bickering.

/Why should I... OW/ Bakura had just received a mental kick from his hikari.

/Now, BE QUIET/

"Interesting, one mind is darker and devious, but courageous; definately the Slytherin type. Yet the other isa bitsubmissive and eager to learn,but no doubt courageous in his own right.A Ravenclaw at first glance...but all that courage definitely counts for something... GRYFFINDOR!"

The shout interrupted Bakura and Ryou's argument and Ryou resumed control of his body then walked over to the Gryffindor table.

"Next... Seto Kaiba,"

Several whispers ran through the Great Hall from several girls.

"Did I hear Dumbledore right? That's the Seto Kaiba?"

"Of course it is; what other guy has absolutely gorgeous sapphire eyes like that?"

There were several dreamy sighs from all around. Sakura felt as if she were going to be sick. "Oh honestly, he's not that good-looking," she heard Britts mutter. She saw her friend steal a slight glance at Ryou as she spoke however.

Up at the stool, the Sorting Hat was talking an awful lot in Seto's head, much to his annoyance.

"Let me see, let me see, quite a shady past you've got. Both parents dead, adopted by a cruel business tycoon, endured harsh abuse, yet always there for your little brother... Well then..."

"Are you done yet?" Kaiba muttered crossly.

"Hold your hippogriffs, lad. As I was going to say...GRYFFINDOR!"

Sakura slammed her hands down on her ears as complete pandemonium erupted from all around. Many girls at the Gryffindor table screeched and applauded excitedly, while the girls at other tables sulked. Although several girls tried to convince Kaiba to sit with them, he ignored their advances and sat down next to Mokuba.

"And finally Yugi Mutou,"

"Ah, two minds in this body as well..." murmured the Hat. "One is shadowy and, mysterious and the other carefree andnaïve but both are equally audacious... GRYFFINDOR without a doubt!"

After Yugi sat down at the Gryffindor table, the Sorting Hat and its stool were taken away and Dumbledore was talking again.

"Now I have a few things I must clear out of the way before we completely lose our senses in the marvelous feast that has been prepared for us. First and foremost, as most of our world now knows, Lord Voldemort does indeed walk amongst us once again."

Scattered whispers echoed off the gigantic walls of the spacious room.

"It's in times like this, when we must ease any personal squabbles we may have with others and combine our strength with those, perhaps, you've rather avoid, for there is great strength in numbers.

"On a lighter note, our caretaker, Mr. Argus Filtch, has informed me that the list of objects forbidden inside the castle has grown to the number four hundred and seventy-six. For more details, see Mr. Filtch's office. Thirdly..."

"Hurry it up, Uncle. Some of us would actually like to eat before we're dead and burned to ash," Sakura moaned, clutching her stomach as the headmaster continued talking.

"Patience is a virtue," Britts reminded her.

"Not one of mine,"

"Now I believe I have kept your tummies rumbling long enough, eat up!" Dumbledore said cheerfully.

"Finally!" Sakura exclaimed as the plates filled with food.

There was roast beef, bacon, steak, and pot-pie; mashed, roast, boiled potatoes and fries, Yorkshire pudding, peas and carrots, along with gravy, ketchup, and any number of other delicious foods. **(A/N: Makes your mouth water just thinking about it, don't it?)** Sakura, Yugi, Kaiba, Mokuba, Britts, and Ryou, immediately dug in.

Finally everyone had eaten as much as they could and the plates filled with deserts. Several blocks of ice cream and toppings for it came into view along with a thousand other delights including puddings, apple pie, éclairs and doughnuts and... **(A/N: Well, let's just say I could go on and on and make our stomachs growl until they cave in, but I'm not that mean.) **

Sakura filled her plate with chocolate, Moosetracks, and chocolate peanut butter ice cream, topping it off with tons of chocolate and peanut butter syrup, chocolate chips, marshmallows, a large strawberry.

Yugi helped himself to some Jell-O then asked, "I guess you like chocolate then, eh Sakura?"

Kaiba snickered, "By the looks of that sundae, she's more of a chocoholic."

"She is," a coffee-haired girl told them. "She has to have at least a taste of chocolate at every meal."

Sakura ignored this and plundged into her sundae.

All too soon the deserts disappeared, and Dumbledore got up to speak again. "I have one last thing to say before I send you off to bed" he said. "Welcome to another year at Hogwarts; now, to bed with all of you. Scat!" He gave them all a swish towards the doors which flew open and the students began to file out.

"Hey bro, check it out, the portraits move," Mokuba pointed out as Sakura and Britts led him and the others to the Gryffindor tower.

"Not only that, they talk too," Britts said.

"That's impossible. How can a painting talk?" Kaiba sneered.

"It's quite easy, laddie; you should be more open minded," remarked the picture of a Scottish bagpiper.

"What do ya know? The big bad C.E.O. of Kaiba Corps just got told off by a painting," Bakura commented, having switched control with Ryou just to piss off Kaiba.

Sakura rolled her eyes. "Thank you Captain Obvious, we couldn't tell, honest.Nowkeep your eyes on the staircases, they like to change."

"What do you...? Whoa," Yugi was silenced as he looked up. There were huge stairwells above them, some of which were in fact moving.

Soon they came to a halt in front of a portrait of a rather large woman in a pink silken dress.

"Password?" she asked.

"Puffskins," Mokuba said and immediately the canvas swung open, revealing the entrance.

"How'd you know the password?" Seto asked him.

"A red-haired prefect told me," And with that he climbed inside.

Sakura snapped her fingers. "That reminds me, Britts and I need to introduce you guys to Harry, Ron, and Hermione." Without another word she climbed in after Mokuba.

"Harry, Ron, and Hermione? Who are they?" Ryou inquired as he and the others followed.

"They were the three teens we saw go through the barrier back and King's Cross. Speaking of which, there they are. You three, what's up?" Britts explained.

Two boys and a girl looked up from their conversation in front of the large roaring fire at the newcomers. Kaiba, Yugi, Mokuba, and Ryou instantly recognized them from the train station.

"Hey Britts, Sakura, not much," said the black-haired boy as he stood up from the squashy armchair he was sitting in. They could see a thin lightening bolt shaped scar on his forehead in the flickering firelight.

"Who are these guys?" asked the redhead who was standing next to the chair. "You got any idea, Harry?"

"Weren't youpaying attention at dinner?" chastised the brunette girl as she leaned against the fireplace. "They're the new exchange students."

"Well sorry Hermione, some of us had our minds on other things," the redhead retorted. He blushed slightly, but Hermione didn't notice.

The brunette rolled her eyes as she let out an exasperated sigh. "Honestly Ron, you're impossible, always thinking with your stomach."

_I think he may have been thinking with more than just his stomach, Hermione,_ Harry thought, having seen his best friend's blush.

"Are that boy and girl always like this?" Ryou whispered.

"Often much worse," Britts muttered.

Hermione walked over to Yugi, Ryou, and the Kaiba brothers. "I'm Hermione Granger." She offered her hand and each of the boys shook it as they introduced themselves.

"Yugi Mutou,"

"Ryou Bakura,"

"Mokuba Kaiba, and this is my older brother Seto,"

"It's a pleasure. This is Harry Potter," she pointed to the boy with the scar. "And that's Ron Weasly," she gestured to the other.

Britts gave a loud yawn. "Well, I don't know about you folks, but I'm dog-tired, no offense, Sakura. I'm heading to bed. G'night." Stretching, she went up one of the staircases to the girl's dormitories, followed by Hermione; little did Sakura know that Myoga had gone with them.

A few minutes later, the boys had gone to bed and Sakura went up to the sixth year girl's dorm.

"My congratulations to you, Fangs; Myoga just told us," greeted a familiar voice as she entered a room with five four poster beds.

Her blood orbs glanced in the direction of the voice and met the dark chocolate eyes of a lass with black coffee hair and light skin lying on one of the beds, the same one who had commented on her chocolate addiction.

"Lara, why must you still call me by that nickname? And what did he tell you?"

"About you kissing Seto Kaiba on the neck."

Sakura blushed so furiously her head looked like a cherry with whipped cream on top. "T-thatwas a-an accident."

"Accident or not, you kissed the Seto Kaiba," Lavender Brown squealed.

Sakura growled in indignation. "It doesn't matterif I kissed him!The train hit a bump, the lights went out, and I fell! It was a bloody accident! It doesn't mean anything! Get that through your thick skulls, you futhetic**(1) **mortals! Conversation OVER!" Exhausted, Sakura collapsed onto her four-poster and closed the scarlet hangings, shielding herself from view. Sleep instantly overcame her senses, sweeping her from reality into the depths of her subconscious.

-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-

"The Millennium Items, you say, Wormtail?" asked a harsh voice from a large armchair.

"Y-yes, my lord," answered a small huddled figure kneeling on the floor with an old torn up volume in his quavering hands.

'Five thousand years ago, the great pharaohs of Egypt manipulated magic of great and terrible power. This was used to summon monsters from a place called the Shadow Realm. Eventually, the magic spun out of control and almost destroyed the entire world, but one man was able to seal the monsters away in stone tablets. To aid his loyal priests in capturing the creatures, he created the seven Millennium Items; when used together the pharaoh and his priests were unstoppable.'

"Hmm," Lord Voldemort murmured. "This magic is perfect. Wormtail, track down these Items and inform Narcissa Malfloy that her son needs to keep a close eye on what's happening at Hogwarts and complete his mission. If Dumbledore pulls any tricks out of his hat, I want to know immediately."

Bowing, Wormtail left the room with a loud popping sound.

A long skeletal hand reached out and ran along the spine of a huge serpent. "Well, well, well, Nagani, it appears that these Millennium Items will aid me greatly. Of course, we'll have to do away with their possessors, but that should be a simple task. Heh, heh, heh, heh..."

Icy laughter, colder than the darkest depths of the Antarctic Ocean, began to echo throughout the dim room.

-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-

(1) I invented this word while talking to my friend one day, it means fucking pathetic. Get it? It's pronounced: fa-the-tic. MY WORD!

**Anaya's Creator: **I'll upload Ch. 4 asap. Please review!


	4. A Familiar Face

**Anaya's Creator:** (Is busy listening to the soundtrack of _Spamalot!)_

**Kaiba:** Here's Chapter 4. Anaya's Creator Does Not Own Yu-Gi-Oh, Inu-Yasha, Or Harry Potter!

Chapter 4: A Familiar Face

When Sakura woke up the next morning, she saw Stitch curled up in a ball beside her. She ran a hand along his back pensively, her thoughts wandering to the previous day. _I know what happened between Kaiba and I yesterday was just a really, really creepy misunderstanding, but I can't get it out of my head. That felt so good, with his arms around me, and breath falling on my neck. I get shivers just... Wait a minute, what the hell am I thinking?_ Angry with herself for thinking such things, she shook her head to clear her mind. She looked over at her clock; it was four a.m. ... perfect

Stretching a little, she hauled herself out of bed. She changed into a tight pair of black cloth pants and a loose black t-shirt, tied back her hair in a long white braid, then she left the room.

About ten minutes later, she reached an empty classroom. Despite the lack of light, she could see the desks pushed up against the back wall and the last bits of starlight crept through the large churchlike windows. Sakura walked over to one of them and gazed out at the brightening landscape as the sun rose behind the forbidden forest. She unhooked one of the latches and pushed the glass panes aside. After all the rain yesterday, the air was humid and sticky, making it slightly difficult for her to breathe.

One of her ears twitched unexpectedly. Footsteps could be heard echoing off the walls into the spacious room. She inhaled deeply at the sound of the rapid beat. The scent of potion ingredients lingered in the air; her sensei** (1)** was approaching, and at quite a fast pace. The odor was getting stronger and she could hear the rhythm of footfalls more distinctly now. Her instructor was at the door, she turned around to greet him, but the entryway was empty.

One of her brows rose in curiosity and she said, "I know you're here, Sensei. Show yourself." She pulled out her wand (ten inches, black ebony) Her arm shook slightly as her wand hummed with energy

"Come and find me first," was the reply.

Sakura felt a tweak of annoyance. "What are you playing at?" There was a loud _clunk_ as she hit the floor with her weapon with impatience.

"Patience, Sakura, patience; this is nothing too complicated. Simply figure out how to track me down... unless you don't have what it takes to figure it out."

Annoyance now slowly mounting to a mix of anger and exasperation, Sakura took a deep breath once more, then closing her eyes she zoned in on the scent and listened carefully. Her eyes snapped open a few moments later, and she charged.

"STUPEFY!"

A burst of red light shot out of nowhere and flew straight towards her.

Hastily, Sakura countered with a shield charm, just in time to block the stunning charm. She threw herself at where it had come from, but in vain, for she only ended up slamming herself into the wall.

The sound of laughter filled her ears. "Heh, heh, heh, come now little Cherry Blossom **(2)," **her sensei's voice jeered. "You _know _you can better. Heh, heh, heh..."

Now really irritated, she was having a lot of difficulty concentrating. If there was one thing her teacher knew most about her, it was how to successfully rattle her. She honed in on the cackles once more, tightened her grip on her wand and charged.

"_Rictusempa_!"

Another spell was launched in her direction. It sped closer and just as it was about five feet away she jumped over it. As she landed, more like almost falling and saving herself at the last minute, she heard her sensei move again.

"Your landings are as clumsy as ever. Didn't you practice over the summer? I was hoping for a better trained warrior this year, but you've only disappointed me."

Sakura felt her irritation boil into anger, but before she chargedagain she closed her eyes and tried to calm herself down. As she took deep, steadying breaths, her wand hummed even more and she could sense two auras clashing together, hers, and her sensei's. Suddenly she knew what to do. She outright launched herself in the direction of one of the auras, praying with all her might that it was the right one. Her claws curled around a bundle of cloth and she knew she had caught him.

"Good Sakura, but only that. Because of your rage, you caught me by sheer dumb luck! You must learn how to control that temper of yours. And do it soon."

Sakura released her teacher and asked, "But Professor, something happened! I could see auras!"

"So you sensed my aura. Did you see where yours and mine clashed?"

"Yes,"

"Hmm, maybe you haven't disappointed me, Sakura. We shall work more on this tomorrow morning."

"So what's the deal, Sensei? How did you turn invisible?"

"Like this," There was the _swish_ of a cloak and a man with greasy black hair, a long hooked nose, and shallow skin was revealed. In Professor Snape's hand was a fluid, silvery grey cloth.

His student took it in her hands and ran her blood orbs over it curiously. "An invisibility cloak, nice. Where did you get it?"

"I borrowed it from someone in the Order of the Phoenix especially for this lesson. Now let us get back to your training."

Sakura spent the next hour with Professor Snape practicing the martial arts she had learned from her father. Then, sweating and panting for breath, she walked back to the Gryffindor Tower. As she stepped through the portrait hole, she saw Seto Kaiba sitting in front of the empty fireplace on one of the large armchairs, typing on his laptop. "Hey, working hard or hardly working?" she greeted, looking over his shoulder at the device.

Kaiba didn't answer her. His eyes were fixed on the cobalt screen covered in pie charts, e-mails, and other graphics, all pertaining to Kaiba Corps. However, he seemed to notice that she was leaning over his shoulder because the next moment he said, "Stop that immediately. You're annoying me and smell like a sweaty horse."

"Gee thanks," And with that, Sakura went up to the girl's dormitory to take a shower.

A while later, Yugi, Kaiba, Ryou, and the others sat at the Gryffindor eating breakfast. "Hey, check it out, I guess Dumbledore found a new D.A.D.A teacher; we got it right after lunch," Harry remarked as McGonagall passed out the new schedules.

"Wonder who the new professor is," Ron said as he took a bite of bacon.

"Remember Lockhart and when he let pixies run wild about the classroom?" Lara asked, her eyes laughing at the memory of their foolish Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher from their second year.

"That baka had no idea what he was doing," Sakura commented.

"Who could forget? What about Lupin with the boggart? Snape in a lady's dress and vulture topped hat, now that's something that one can't forget easily," Ron brought up, laughing.

"And Moody and his obsession with Unforgivable Curses? He put it on me sixteen times before I was able to fight it off completely," Britts added.

"EEEWWW! THAT BLUE FREAK IS BACK AGAIN!" a girl shrieked; it was quite similar to the sound of a banshee's song.

Sakura stood on her chair and looked over at the Slytherin table. She squinted a bit and was able to make out a small blue colored creature crawling over it. "Interesting," she muttered, sitting back down on the bench.

A few moments later, Stitch waddled over to the Gryffindor table and leapt into Sakura's lap with a few plump sausages in his mouth. After applying a bit of brain power those sitting around her were able to piece together what had happened.

A pair of Slytherin girls approached Sakura. "I thought you got rid of that thing," one of them demanded. She had peroxide-blonde hair and dim grey eyes.

"Why should I? Stitch is the best companion I've ever had," Sakura replied, scooping some scrambled eggs with ketchup into her mouth. "Oh, and did you know, the peroxide look in your hair, doesn't bode well for you."

"How dare you insult her?" the other girl exclaimed. "Hybrid spawn like you isn't even worth the dirt beneath her shoes." She had brown hair that had red streaks in it and bright blue eyes. Both the girls had skinny frames that gave them an anorexic look.

Sakura made no reply, just turned her attention to Stitch, who was snuggling into her robes. "Oh my poor little puppy," she cooed. "Did these mean Slytherin girls do scary things to you?" She scratched him behind the ears as she spoke.

Stitch let out a content purr and rolled onto his stomach, begging for a belly scratch.

"Well, whatever that thing is, keep it away from us!"

"Correction, Stitch is a boy, not an 'it'."

"Whatever just—Oh hi Seto," Christe said with a seductive smile, having only now noticed the C.E.O.'s presence.

Kaiba didn't even look up.

Seeing that her flirtations were unreturned, Christe stomped off with her friend behind her.

"Who were those girls?" Ryou asked.

"Christe Morgana and Brittany Pandemic," Sakura answered, saying the names as if they were poison.

"The mail's here," Ron announced.

The peck of owls flew around the Great Hall, dropping letters and packages into their owners' laps and sometimes into their food. A large eagle owl flew over to Malfloy with a rather large package and a horned one landed in front of Sakura with only a medium sized envelope attached to it.

"Thanks Hera," she muttered as it landed on her shoulder.

"Is that your owl?" Yugi asked her as she removed the envelope.

The owl ate some of her toast and made ready to fly off.

"It actually belongs to the school." She opened the letter and scanned it over. "Yugi, Britts, Lara, Kaiba, Ryou, Professor McGonagall wishes to see us in her office tonight after dinner," she said.

Stitch crawled off of Rogue's lap and went over to Harry, begging for attention with huge puppy-dog eyes.

The five of them nodded.

Sakura's blood red irises glanced over at Seto who, to the interest of others besides herself, had acquired a large amount of letters, and she highly doubted that Kaiba Corp used owl post.

Letting curiosity get the better of him, Harry picked up one of them and looked it over. His eyes widened as he saw the sender. "You got a letter from Cho Chang. I wonder why?"

"You'll want to let go of that," Kaiba stated in a bored tone. He pulled out his wand and muttered "Explodious," as the letter dropped from the green-eyed boy's hand. _Bang!_ And in a mixture of sparks and smoke, the flames disintegrated.

After breakfast, everyone left the house tables for classes. On her way to History of Magic, Sakura had her first run-in of the year with Peeves the Poltergeist. He flew out of the wall behind her, grabbed her nose, shouted "GOT YOUR CONK!" then grabbed her hat and sped away, blowing a large wet raspberry in her direction. As result of this humiliation, she had gone tearing down the hall after him, bellowing, "PEEVES! GET BACDK HERE AND SO I CAN KICK YOUR GHOST ASS AND RIP OUT YOUR HEART!" Unluckily, she ran into Argus Filch, the caretaker, who at that time was mopping the floor of one of the hallways. And, of course being a klutz, Sakura went sliding across the floor, landing right on her face.

Filch was furious. "You idiot student!" he shouted. "Can't you see that I'm mopping the floor here!"

"Well, excuuuuse me! How was I supposed to know that you were cleaning up down this hallway! Accio hat," Sakura's hat wrenched itself out of Peeves' hands and zoomed over to her. Her eyes glanced at her watch as she put it back on. "Lordy, is that the time? Filch, as much as I would love to stay and receive that detention I know you're dying to give me, I must go. Can't be late to the first class of the year, ya' know. That's tacky." She turned on her heel, ran back down the corridor, and came into the History of Magic classroom only one second late.

"Congratulations on being the first tardy of the year, Miss Yang, now if you would kindly take your seat, I can begin class," said the hollow wavery voice of Professor Binns.

"It's Yasha, sir," Sakura corrected, but she went and took her seat between Yugi and Britts anyways.

"You missed it," Yugi whispered to her. "Just before you came in, Professor Binns entered through the chalkboard."

"And that's the most exciting thing that'll happen anytime that you're in here," Harry told him.

Professor Binns took his normal place at the podium in front of the class. "Everyone, today you will be taking a start of term examination so I can see how much you've learned in the past five years you have spent with me."

There was a loud groan throughout out the mass of black robes that was the students along with lots of the exasperated rolling of eyes.

Professor Binns ignored them and passed out the exams then after thirty minutes of test-taking, he collected them and began lecturing them about something-or-other and in no time at all the class adjusted to its normal non-attentive, sleepy stupor. But what could you expect from a teacher that was a ghost. Yes my dear reader, you read that passage right, a ghost. Professor Binns had simply fallen asleep in front of the staffroom fire one night and gotten up to teach the next morning, failing to notice that he had left his body behind.

The only students able to stay alert during the teacher's droning were Hermione, Seto, and Sakura. Hermione was paying rapt attention and taking her usual notes. Sakura's black leather-bound book was out again and her pen was smoothly gliding across the blank pages. And as for Seto, this ghost was just like quite a few teachers he had been forced to listen today and night while he had been under Gozaburo's brutal care. Finally the class ended, and the sixth years headed down to the grounds for Care of Magical Creatures.

"What do you think Hagrid's going to show us this year?" Harry asked.

"No idea," Ron replied. "Let's just hope it isn't anything like the Blast-Ended Skrewts from fourth year."

"Those things were the devil's work for sure," Lara commented.

"Are you sure you weren't just scared of them, Carole?" sneered an all too familiar voice from behind her.

Sakura and Lara made to turn around, but Britts firmly grabbed their shoulders. "Just keep walking," she whispered and the whole group trudged towards Hagrid's cabin.

"All right, all ye gather 'round. I got someat' special for yer this year." Hagrid went into the forest for a moment and when he came back there were several gasps and whispers from the students.

"Hagrid... where did you get that?" Sakura gasped her eyes wide with wonder as she stared at the magnificent animal before them.

The beast was a majestic creature with the head and front legs of an eagle, but the hind legs of a lion. Its feathers were rich mahogany and its fur and beak were of purest gold. And at the end of its large feet were sharp onyx claws.

"Griffins," Hagrid announced. "Their origins lie in Greece and are used nowadays to by wizards to protect treasure and other valuables."

The rest of the lesson was spent learning about griffins. At one point, Hagrid asked if anyone wanted to come up and touch it. Thinking it was better to be safe than sorry, everyone stayed back.

The bell rang all too soon and everyone headed up to the castle.

"Well, that was an interesting lesson," Yugi said.

"Indeed," Ryou agreed.

"You Mudbloods call that a lesson?" Malfloy sneered from ahead of them. "Ha, you Japanese students must be dumber than you look."

Sakura was about to turn around and give them a piece of her mind when she perceived a strange presence. She glanced next to her and could feel a charged atmosphere around Ryou and Yugi. Their auras had changed, had become darker and she could sense it big time. Also instead of being their usual violet and chocolate brown, their irises flashed...crimson?

With a cross look in his eyes, Yugi turned to Ryou, "So what do you think we should do with these mortals, Bakura?" His voice had become deeper, more confident, not at all his normal tone

Malfloy must have sensed the adjustment in the air, for he began to look not so confident.

"I think we should put them out of our way permanently and send them to the shadow realm right now, Pharaoh," answered a voice that wasn't Ryou's.

_Pharaoh? Shadow Realm?_

Seto chuckled darkly. "Don't waste your energy, you two. They're obviously aren't worth it."

The atmosphere around them changed again and Yugi and Ryou seemed to stiffen then relax and changed back to their normal selves.

"What are we doing just standing around? Shouldn't we be going to lunch?" Yugi asked, his voice back to it's "innocent little me" sound.

Sakura was confused, and apparently she wasn't the only one. "What was that about?" she heard Lara whisper so lowly in her ear that only she could hear.

"I don't know."

"Hey bro!" shouted a voice from over by the greenhouses, distracting the girls.

The group turned and saw Mokuba streaming towards them.

"How was your first half a day, Mokuba?" Seto inquired, kneeling down to his little brother.

"Fun...I went to...Transfiguration...and Herbology and... made two new friends," the young colt panted, breathless from his run.

"That sounds really great, kiddo," Sakura said with a kind smile, patting the youngling on the shoulder. There was a great rumble from her stomach. "Dang, I'm so hungry I could eat a hippogriff; let's get inside." She began walking up the steps into the Great Hall, ignoring the pang that had formed in her heart. Seeing Seto and Mokuba acting like brothers reminded her of how she and Shippo used to be. The red-headed fox-demon had been a friend of her mother and father for many years, ever since he had been very young and had been a big brother to her. The last time she had seen him was when her parents last took her to the feudal era, barely a week before they had been killed. She hadn't seen him since.

-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8--

After lunch, the Gryffindors piled into the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, excited and anxious about who their teacher would be.

"Hey guys, check it out," Ron elbowed Sakura in the ribs and she tapped Harry and Hermione on the shoulder. Ron gestured over to a large trunk in the front of the room, which rattled back and forth periodically.

Soon the four of them shared almost identical smiles. "One guess as to who this teacher is," Sakura muttered.

Moments later, Professor Lupin came into the classroom. He was as shabby and as tired as ever but he smiled brightly at them, despite his mane of now mostly grey hair. "Welcome sixth years, to N.E.W.T. Defense Against the Dark Arts. I am Professor Lupin, for those who know me, its good to be back, and for those who don't, it's a pleasure to meet you. You can put all your things away, except for your wands. I reviewed what Dumbledore said you had learned in the years I haven't been here, and since apparently had a quite boring time in here last year, I thought we'd start off this one with a little fun. Can anyone tell me what is in that trunk?"

The chest gave another loud shudder as almost everyone's hand went into the air.

"Just shout it out," Lupin told them.

"A boggart," a random person shouted.

"Very good, five points to Gryffindor. Now, since we all had so much fun with the one I brought when I taught you in your third year, I thought we'd give it another go. Everyone form a line."

Immediately, all the students jumped to their feet and hurriedly scrambled into a makeshift line with Kaiba, Yugi, Ryou, Yugi, Sakura, Britts, Lara, Ron, Harry, and Hermione mixed somewhere at the end.

"Does everyone remember how to get rid of a boggart?" Lupin asked.

There were several nods.

"Alright then, Dean Thomas, how about you go first." The professor turned to his record player and loud music began to play.

"How do you get rid of a boggart?" Ryou asked.

Sakura was about to answer when Britts answered for her.

"Just watch, it'll be easier to explain after you see it."

With a swish of Lupin's wand, the trunk burst open and out came a man dressed in a white doctor's coat carrying a small tooth drill. Apparently, Dean didn't like muggle dentists.

Dean cried, _"Riddikulus!" _and the dentist's hands were encased in cotton candy and skittles were falling around him.

"Seamus Finnigan,"

"What a boggart does is it takes the shape of what will frighten you most. What will get rid of a boggart is laughter. Using the Riddikulus charm you can force it into a shape you find amusing. But it must be done with feeling in order to make it work properly," Britts explained.

Time passed quickly as the boggart took on a myriad of shapes, until finially it was Sakura's turn.

She rushed to the front of the line, more than ready to face it. Instantly, the boggart changed, but instead of becoming the full moon like it did times she faced it before, it changed into..._ her?_

But wait a minute it wasn't her. The boggart's eyes were vacant pools of blood with black slits for pupils. Its claws were longer than hers and were covered in red stains that reeked of human scent. There were also black jagged marks running from its ears to the middle of its cheeks.

Sakura gulped her eyes wide with fear. She felt petrified as the boggart revealed to her what she was truly afraid of. A warm light began glowing from around her neck, power radiated from it, giving her strength. _"Riddikulus!"_ she exclaimed and the boggart changed into Rodger Rabbit **(1)** and began banging itself on the head with a frying pan. Sakura was soon laughing so hard that she was doubled over.

The boggart seemed to freeze for a minute, and then exploded into several whisps of smoke.

**Anaya's Creator: **Chapter 5 is coming soon.


	5. Girl with the Hex

**Anaya's Creator:** Here's chapter five!

**Kaiba:** Don't you have tests to be studying for?

**Anaya's Creator:** (pushes textbooks out of sight) No... I don't own Harry Potter, Yu-Gi-Oh, or Inu-Yasha. Thanks for reviewing Zuko's 1 and only.

Chapter 5: _Girl with the Hex_

"Your O.W.L's, which you will be taking at the end of this month, are a simple matter to take care of. As for you new students, you will have a studying partner whom has been here for the past five years to help you catch up," McGonagall explained as he stood in front of the fire.

It was after dinner and Yugi, Seto, Lara, Sakura, Ryou, and Britts had all congregated in Professor McGonagall's office where Professor Dumbledore and she were telling them about the O.W.L's a.k.a. Ordinary Wizarding Levels.

"Mr. Bakura, you will be paired up with Miss Brittany Trifler," Professor Dumbledore said.

The two looked at each other and nodded.

"Mr. Motou, you will be studying with Miss Carole. And Mr. Kaiba, you and my niece will work together. "

_Perfect,_ Sakura thought._ I have to deal with Mr. Tall, Rich, and So-handsome-all-the-girls-in-the-world-want-me. Let's just call the Ministry now and say I failed the tests for all the studying I'm gonna get done._

"You will report here every night after dinner for one hour to study. I also highly suggest studying in your common rooms and dormitories as well as during your time in here," Professor McGonagall told them.

"However, tonight instead of studying, you should get with your partner and get to know him or her. Good luck to all of you," and with that Dumbledore left.

Within minutes the room was filled with friendly chatter. Yugi had moved over by Lara and was talking with her about his home back in Japan. Britts had mentioned that she was an artist, so she and Ryou were now looking at her sketchbook. Kaiba was the only one not talking; he just stared blankly at Sakura as she constantly tried to start a conversation between them.

"So how's Domino? I haven't been back home in so long. Anything changed in my six year absence?" **(1)** She received no reply so she tried again.

"So how do you like Hogwarts so far?"

Once again, there was silence.

Anger slowly mounting within her, she brought up another topic. "Professor Binns is a real snore, isn't he? He's so busy lecturing that he fails to notice over half the class has nodded off. How you and Hermione are able to sit there and pay attention all period is beyond me,"

Kaiba continued to ignore her.

_What is this git's problem?_ Sakura thought furiously. Suddenly, she got an idea. "I bet I can stand on my hands longer than you," she challenged, easily flipping into a handstand.

"Must you insist on making a fool of yourself?" Kaiba asked.

Sakura's jaw dropped. "My God, he talks!" she exclaimed. In her surprise, her arms gave way beneath her and she landed on her head with a soft _thump_. Groaning a little, the white-haired demon pulled herself into a sitting position. "Yep; and, actually, it's quite enjoyable every once and a while."

Kaiba let out a vindictive chuckle. "You remind me of one of Yugi's geeks, the mutt Wheeler." His voice was seething with obvious dislike.

_Two can play at that game,_ "And you remind me of some of the sadistic demons my father and I fought together, whose memories I keep alive by dancing on their tombstones."

Seto's eyes widened. Okay, this girl was pretty weird.

-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-

"What's the most necessary ingredient in a Polyjuice Potion?"

"A bit of whomever you want to turn into,"

"Yep."

It was two weeks later, and Sakura and Kaiba were quizzing each other in his dormitory before bed. They weren't studying in the common room because it had become quite crowded and noisy; also if the two of them were seen alone together, they were mobbed by several unwanted looks and comments.

"What are two other names for monkswood?"

"Aconite and wolfbane,"

As time passed the pair's dislike of each other had eased to polite cooperation and, though the two were hesitant to admit it, an odd sort of friendship. They had quite a few things in common; they had even gone to the same elementary school back in Japan.

Seto found himself slowly opening up to the demon-girl. Sure, she was strange and had a tendency to forget things, but at least she wasn't some screaming idiot fan girl. Unlike most of the girls he had met, she seemed to have a sensible head on her shoulders, though shecould berather stubborn.

Sakura's opinion of Seto had changed as well. She was finding him less and less to be the spoiled git she had thought him to be and more and more someone who was simply misunderstood, not that he let anyone try to understand him. And thanks to his help, she might actually remember what she learned these past five years instead of forgetting it all as soon as a test paper was put in front of her, which was what normally happened.

The albino looked at her watch and her eyes widened. "Whoa, it's getting late. I'd better get to bed."

"It's only nine thirty though,"

"I value my sleep."

"Right, that's why you come back to the Tower at six thirty in the morning sweating like a hog from doing only God, knows what."

"You make it sound like I've been doing something horrible."

"Well, why is it that you get up so early?" Kaiba found himself intrigued by her mysterious morning ventures in spite of himself.

"That's for me to know and for you to boggle your brains out over. Come on Stitch, it's time to go to bed,"

Stitch, who had been crawling and rolling all over the room, climbed onto Sakura's shoulder as she gathered up her things.

"Good night, Kaiba"

After she had left, Seto noticed a small, black, leather bound book that hadn't been there before. It looked like the notebook that Sakura always had with her, was it hers? A quick flip through the aged yellowing pages confirmed that theory. The pieces of paper that were written on were covered with her tiny—and sloppy—script. He put it on the nightstand next to his bed and making a mental note to himself to return it to her the next day, grabbed his laptop. The screen lit up as the Kaiba Corps logo flashed across an ocean blue background. Professor McGonagall had been right, as soon as he installed the chips in his cell phone and laptop, they worked perfectly as if he were back home in Japan. When it had finished loading, Seto suddenly found himself staring at not his normal desktop, but at the face of an aqua- haired teen with blue eyes.

"Hey Seto," the face said. "Miss me?"

-8-8-8-

Sakura entered her dormitory expecting it to be empty, but instead she found herself facing her friend Lara. "Why are you here so early, L? You okay?" she asked, using Lara's nickname.

"I'm fine, Fangs; how's studying with the infamous Seto Kaiba?"

"It's alright. Surprisingly, he's not at all like my first impression led me to believe."

"Ooo, is our vicious little Fangs having a change of heart?" Lara inquired, raising an eyebrow at her friend suggestively.

"What I'm saying, is that he's a nice guy once you get to know him," Sakura answered firmly.

"Sure, that's what you say."

Sakura's blood orbs flashed dangerously. "Don't get any ideas, L." she warned as she started changing into her pajamas.

"You know you like him, Fangs. You're just afraid to admit it."

"Don't push me; L. Tomorrow's the full moon."

"Oh, I'm so scared,"

"You should be." Sakura then collapsed into her bed and said no more.

-8-Dream-8-

_Pain seared across Sakura's face as she hit the ground with tremendous force. Her shoulder was probably bruised and she could taste the blood in her mouth as the inside of her cheek bled._

_Regaining her focus, she looked around her tormenters. She was surrounded by a group of men in servant's dress. _

_One of them grabbed her by her hair—which was still white, but tied back in several braids—and pulled her near his ugly face. "We told you to get us a full jar of water, demon wench. Not one half full." He pushed her to the floor._

_She opened her mouth to explain, to beg for forgiveness, but no words came out. She was mute._

"_Hey boss, she can't talk."_

"_Perfect, we could have some fun with her and nobody'd ever know."_

_The group parted and revealed a man (who was obviously the leader) with messy gold-blonde hair and light blue eyes, no to mention huge muscles which could easily send her into a world of hurt. He knelt in front of her and one of his large callused hands reached under her chin, lifting her head up to face him._

"_It's okay, sweetheart. If you cooperate, you won't get hurt," he coaxed, his voice feigning gentleness._

_Sakura felt like she was going to be sick. Get hurt? She was already in plenty of agony, no thanks to him and his goons. Her face contorted in discomfort as the brute ran his other hand down the other side of her face that was still stinging from being struck,_

"_You got a pretty face, know that?" he told her, letting his eyes wander across more than her face._

"_Let go of that servant girl, you slime," said a deep voice from behind the gang._

"_And what are you going to do if I don't," her captor replied, not noticing that his cronies were beginning to back down and a few moments later, they scattered._

_The blonde let go of Sakura and turned around to look at who had made his men disperse._

_Standing there was a tall, slender man, dressed in priest garments. His gaze shone like a cerulean fire and what could be seen of his hair was gleaming chestnut. He looked so much like Seto and in his hand, was what looked like a double-headed ax forged from gold with an eye between the blades._

"_High Priest Seto!"_

"_That's right you, scumbag," The young man smirked and aimed his scepter at the rogue. There was a flash of blinding light and his victim collapsed in a heap. "Come with me, girl. I'll get you to a healer," the priest said and began to walk away._

_Terrible shaken, Sakura sat there for a moment, staring after her rescuer._

_He must have realized that she wasn't following him because he stopped walking and told her: "Or you could just remain here."_

_She shook her head vigorously and leapt to her feet._

-8-End Dream-8-

"Curse you Harry," Sakura muttered the next morning on the way to Charms.

"What did I do?"

"I think your plague of having weird dreams has passed on to me." Sakura's eyes wandered over to Yugi, who looked lost in space. "Yugi, you okay?"

Yugi didn't answer; he just kept staring off into no where, his eyes misted over.

Ryou poked him on the back of the head. "Hey, Earth to Pharaoh's hikari."

_Pharaoh's hikari?_ Lara wondered.

"Oh, does this belong to any of you?" Sakura asked, reaching into her robes and pulling out a small golden ball with an eye-shaped symbol on it, the Millennium Eye.

"It's mine." Bakura said, having kept his control over Ryou since poking Yugi. He barged forward to take the golden ball from her hands, but Sakura dodged him.

"Can I at least know what this thing is?" she asked as she stepped aside and passed it to Lara.

"It's obviously something important," Lara concluded, mischievous glimmers lighting up her dark eyes as she tossed it back to the demon girl.

Yugi grabbed her wrist and Sakura found herself looking not into violet eyes, but deep crimson ones.

"You're not Yugi," she said as Yami plucked the sphere from her hands.

"That's correct."

"That Item belongs to me, Pharaoh."

Sakura turned, and saw that Ryou's eyes had changed as well. Also some of his hair was sticking up. Britts, who was closest to him, stepped back a little. "And you're not Ryou," she said. Why are you calling Yugi 'Pharaoh'? This is just too strange."

"Perhaps we should discuss this some other time," Kaiba commented, holding Bakura by the back of his robes to keep him from charging at Yami. "It's nearly time to get to class."

"You got a point. Let's meet in the library when classes end," Hermione suggested.

"Deal," Sakura snatched the Millennium Eye back from Yami and they resumed walking to class.

The group had almost reached Professor Flitwick classroom when Sakura felt intense pain on her right arm. It felt as if a circle shaped razor was pressing against her skin. There was a sensation of a thick liquid flowing from the place. She was bleeding; the scent of her blood was unmistakable. A hiss of pain escaped her lips and she needed to lean against the wall for support.

Having heard her, Seto turned. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. It's just a bad muscle spasm."

The others had turned around as well by that time.

"Go on ahead, I'll catch up with you in a moment," she insisted.

As the others departed Britts and Lara stayed to help her friend. "Is it time?" Britts inquired.

"Yep,"

"What should I do?" Lara asked

"Think of an excuse for Professor Flitwick and the guys."

Lara nodded and dashed inside the room as Britts and Sakura made their way to the hospital wing.

When they got there Madam Pomfrey asked no questions, she had gotten used to Sakura's monthly visits. She had the demon teen sit on one of the beds and took her arm out of her robes and the crisp white shirt underneath them, revealing a full, tan-colored circle with thick red blood oozing from the edges on her upper arm just below her shoulder. The nurse mopped up the blood and wrapped some bandage around the marking. "You know the routine, Miss Yasha. Return before lunch and dinner so I can redress the wound. And I will have a new uniform for you tomorrow morning."

Sakura nodded and she and Britts walked back to Charms.

Seto was sitting in Charms class with Lara as his partner. "Where's Sakura?" he asked in an undertone.

Lara sighed. "I already told you, Kaiba. She and Britts had to go to the bathroom. Now stop asking and concentrate."

_Oh really? _Kaiba thought.He had caught a glimpse of her and Britts hurrying off together, and it wasn't in the direction of the bathrooms. He made a mental note to ask Sakura about it later.

At two, the gang met again in the library, hidden from other students by the bookcases.

"So what is this thing?" Sakura asked, pulling the Millennium Eye out of her robes.

"It's mine," Bakura said, lunging at her.

Sakura dodged then grabbed the front of his robes and slammed him against the bookcase. "First, tell me what the hell this thing is and why it's so damn important!" she demanded maliciously.

Kaiba and Yugi gaped at her while Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Lara didn't look the least bit surprised.

Britts charged forward. "Sakura, please control yourself."

Sakura blinked as if she just realized what she had done. She let go of Ryou's robes. "I'msorrywhoeveryouare," she apologized quickly.

"So what's so significant about this thing?" Britts asked, gently prying the orb from Sakura's fingers and handing it to Yugi.

Yami took control and held it in his palm for everyone to see. "This is the Millennium Eye. Its origins lie in Ancient Egypt like my puzzle." He gestured to the upside down pyramid he always wore around his neck.

"May I see?" Britts requested.

Yami nodded, took off the puzzle, and handed it to her.

"Fangs, did Dumbledore ever tell you about these things?" Lara inquired.

"Not much more than Yami's already told us. There's supposed to be seven Millennium Items all together and they're said to be pretty powerful objects.

The three girls scanned the pendant with scrutinizing eyes. "I think I got it!" Britts exclaimed. "I sense two spirits within this item, one light and one dark, for lack of better terms. Sakura, Lara, anything?"

Sakura didn't answer. She stared intently into Yami's eyes, blood red piercing through violet-crimson. She breathed in deeply through her nose a few times then backed away. "Well, it's safe to say that you aren't a demon," she concluded. "You're scent is definitely human... um, what should I call you?"

"Yami is fine."

"Yami, it is." Britts confirmed.

"So what about Ryou and his weird mood swings?" Sakura asked.

"What about you and the one you just had?" he argued.

"It's a long story," the girls answered simultaneously.

"Ryou possesses another Millennium Item, the Millennium Ring. It also is home to another spirit. We just call him Bakura; you can usually tell that he's in control whenever Ryou isn't acting himself like a few moments ago," Yami told her.

"If these Millennium Items are from ancient Egypt, you and Bakura must both be from there too." Hermione observed. "But how did you get into the items and why?"

"That is another long story," Bakura said.

"I got nowhere to go." Britts said. She turned to Harry, Ron, Hermione, Sakura and Lara, "You guys?"

"Very well then," Yami sat down on the floor and began explaining.

"Here we go again," Kaiba groaned.

Around an hour later Yami and the other three had finished.

Britts was wide-eyed. She took a deep breath and said, "Okay, let me see if I got it. Yami was a pharaoh in ancient Egypt and has no memory of his past life. Bakura was a thief and does have memories. Seto was the High Priest, but denies that he had anything to do with the past."

"Seems like yougot the gist of it," Yami told them, now a transparent figure beside his hikari. "Now Sakura, why in the name of Ra, did you attack Bakura?"

She got up and wandered towards the window. "It's the full moon tonight," was all she gave for an answer.

"So," Seto said.

Sakura stayed silent.

"It's a part-demon thing," Britts elaborated.

"Well, I got homework to do. See ya'll at dinner," Sakura said, and she dashed off to the Gryffindor common room. Britts and Lara soon followed.

"Those three," Seto grumbled. "We tell them our story and they still keep secrets."

"Relax, Kaiba; they will probably tell us when they are ready," Yami chastised.

Kaiba only grimaced.

That night after dinner, Sakura went off to the dungeons. The hallways she went down were nearly empty except for some suits of armor and the clunking of her heavy footsteps was the only sound echoed off the barren stone walls. Suddenly, she stopped. Her ears twitched as she took a deep breath. She could have sworn that she heard someone following behind her. "Show yourself," she demanded.

A few minutes passed and nothing happened, not able to waste any more precious time, the demon continued on her not so merry way.

As usual, Dumbledore was there to greet her. The stones that made up the dungeon she would spend the night in were a vulgar mixture of green, grey, and brown that glimmered sickeningly in the last of the sunlight that poured through a tiny square window that was barred off by three thick metal shafts. Not to mention, that they were stained with blood. Through the walls, she could hear rodents skittering about and in one corner she could see a rat scamper into a hole in the wall. Attached to one of the walls was a set of thick iron chains. Dumbledore locked them on her wrists and locked her inside just as the sun was just beginning to set. In the corner, just in reach of her was a freshly killed stag.

The sun finished setting and the full moon rose. As the moonlight fell across her face, Sakura felt her transformation begin. Her claws lengthened to over an inch long; black markings inched across her face above where human ears would be, spreading to her cheeks. The blood red tinge of her irises consumed her entire eyes and her pupils became slits. Her fangs grew slightly and all thoughts left her mind until all that remained was emptiness.

Her eyes fell on the corpse that had been left in the room and she scampered over to it. Some rats had already begun devouring it. She gave them one killing stare with a low growl and they scattered, but some of the unlucky ones were slain by her claws then her attention returned to the deer.

Sakura raised a clawed hand in the air, let out a loud howl, and dug into it gleefully.

Outside the dungeon, Seto Kaiba was leaning against the wall, horribly shaken and gasping for air; and for this cold-blooded C.E.O. that was saying something.

-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-

(1) Yes, I know Kagome's origionally from Tokyo, but I changed that.

**Anaya's Creator: **Please review.


	6. Confession Rejection

**Anaya's Creator:** Chapter 6!

**Kaiba:** Here are the reviews:

**Arrathir:**

I love you! Thanks for that bit of information. You don't know how frustrating it is to not be able to respond to your reviews. (hangs head) Yes, you did warn me and I should have listened. But I'm known to be a bit rebellious. Forgive me. I did use the time to go through my story and futher edit it. Is there any particular chapter you think I should look at?

**Zuko's 1 and only:**

You have the great honor of being my first reviewer! (Throws confetti) Thanks so much. Trust me this is a long story. And something similar happens in this chapter like you suggested in your review of chapter 4.

**Anaya's Creator:** Thank you reviewers! I don't own Harry Potter, Yu-Gi-Oh, or Inu-Yasha. Enjoy!

Chapter 5: _Confession __Rejection_

Finally dawn came. There was a high-pitched _creeeeeeak_ as Dumbledore opened the door to his niece's prison. The sparkle in his eyes faded slightly as he gazed about the dungeon. More blood was on the walls and the deer which had been left for her had been mercilessly devoured along with a few rats and the remains strewn about the dungeon.

Sakura was lying against the walls she was chained to, the sunlight gently illuminating her tired face. By the looks of her, it had been a rough night. The robes she wore were damaged beyond repair; they were stained with blood and torn in several places. Her face also had blood on it along with her claws, which had shrunk back to their normal size. Her eyes, also normal again, slowly opened. "Good morning, Uncle," she murmured sleepily.

"Yes, it is," He walked over to her, unlocked her shackles, and helped her up.He handed her a damp towel and she wiped the dried blood off her face and claws. "Before you go to see Madam Pomfrey, there's a young man outside who you may want to speak to about this."

Perplexed, but intrigued Sakura nodded and walked out.

In the hallway, she saw Seto Kaiba sitting on the ground, fast asleep. She chuckled softly to herself and gave him a light nudge with her foot.

He didn't stir.

"WAKE-UP SLEEPYHEAD!" she bellowed.

"Did you have to yell that loud?" he groaned as he got up. His azure eyes widened as he saw her. "What in the name of God? You're normal again! And covered in blood! The last time I saw you, you were..."

"A true demon," Sakura put in, finishing his sentence.

"What in all of hell happened to you in there?"

"I transformed; it happens every full moon. I'm covered in blood because there was a deer left for me to eat." Without any further explanation, she began walking away.

"Wait a minute; where are you going now?" Kaiba asked, chasing after her.

"Hospital wing, I need a new uniform and to get this blood off of me," Noticing that he was coming after her, Sakura stopped so he could catch up.

"When you faced the boggart, is that what it became wasn't it? The demon you?"

"Yes."

"Why do you transform?"

"Well Seto Kaiba..." a voice near Seto's ear began to say

"Myoga, you're back," Sakura interuppted as the flea demon leaped off of Kaiba's shoulder and onto her outstretched finger.

"So why do you transform?"

"Save your breath, Myoga,"she told the flea demon as he opened his small mouth to explain. "Since I have a very small amount of pure demon blood in me, due to my father being a half demon and my mother pure human, I transform into a true demon once every lunar cycle." She crossed her fingers behind her back to excuse her lie. "My time is the full moon, and I don't know how much you saw, but as youcan see it isn't pretty. I have absolutely have no control over my demon self. I would slaughter the whole school if given the chance. Why did you follow me last night?"

"I didn't follow you."

"Right and I suppose you just sleep-walked all the way down here."

"Okay I admit it: I followed you, but only so I could return this," Seto reached into his robes and pulled out Sakura's notebook. He smirked as her eyes widened in surprise.

"Where did you get that?" she demanded maliciously as she tried to snatch it from him, but Kaiba held it up in the air as high as he could; and since he was about a foot taller than her, it was way out of her reach. "Give it back, Kaiba!" She jumped, but she wasn't any closer to getting it back.

"Heh, you'll have to jump higher than that, Yasha," he teased as she jumped again. _Her frustration is so amusing,_ he thought as she hopped up a third time. _Although, she is kind of cute when she gets mad like this._ _Wait a minute, what the hell am I thinking!_

Sakura suddenly stopped jumping and moved to punch him in the stomach, but he caught her wrist before she could make contact.

"Nice try."

"You're lucky I didn't put everything I have into that punch," she growled wrenching her hand free from his grasp. Backing up a bit, she let out a sigh. "Let's try this again. Seto, please give me back my notebook."

"Take it," in one smooth motion, he brought the book down and shoved it into her hands.

"Thank you."

Seto plunged his hands into his pockets and they resumed their stroll, beginning to discuss life back in Japan. "So what happened after I left?"

"Not too much in general, there was just an announcement on the news that your family died in a gas explosion..." but Kaiba was cut off when Sakura burst out laughing.

"Ha, ha, ha... A gas explosion? That's the best excuse for the truth the Ministry could come up with?"

Kaiba gave her a weird look.

"My family didn't die in a gas explosion. They were murdered..." Sakura slapped her hand over her mouth when suddenly she came to grips with what she was saying. _Crap, I said too much,_ she thought furious with herself.

"They were?" Kaiba asked, giving her a weird look.

Thinking fast, sheoffered a different question. "So how did you get to be in Gozaburo's care? Did he marry your mom after your biological father died or something?"

"Heh! A heartless snake like my stepfather, marry? Don't make me laugh." Kaiba suddenly realized they had reached the hospital wing. "So, here we are. Uh, you go on inside and I'll wait for you out here. Then maybe we could go down to breakfast together if you'd like."

"I think breakfast sounds nice, but I need to take some Stomach Settling Solution first. Mine's a little queasy from eating all that raw meat last night." Without another word, Sakura disappeared into the hospital wing.

"Well, that was a bit of unnecessary information," Kaiba muttered under his breath. As he pulled his hands out of his pockets, he noticed his hands were damp with sweat. _What the hell? _he asked himself as he wiped off the sweat that had accumulated on his palms.

"Well,someonecertianly sounded like an insecure fool just now," said Myoga's voice in Kaiba's ear. He was once again on the teen's shoulder. "And by the look of things, you seem to be very fond of Lady Sakura."

"If you mean I'm in love with her, parasite, think again."

"Typical," Myoga sighed. "T'was the same way with Lord Inu-Yasha and Lady Kagome--milady's noble parents. Both so perfect for each other, but blinded by their pride to the bond they shared until it was almost too late. What tragedy."

Having heard quite enough, Kaiba flicked the flea as far away as he could manage.

"Ouch," the thimble-high demon groaned as it hit a nearby suit of armor.

A few minutes later, Sakura reappeared all cleaned up in a new uniform with her hair plaited back and the two of them resumed their trek to the Great Hall. As they walked, Seto was in deep thought, with Sakura at the center of them. Unlike the other girls he had met, instead of liking him just for his money or looks, she had given him a chance to prove himself to her. She was easy for him to talk to, and once he got to know her he found that he actually enjoyed her company; disregarding the fact that she made his palms sweat until they felt like jellyfish. Could it be that Myoga and his little brother were right? Could he really be falling for this girl?

After a simple breakfast in the Great Hall, which was fortunately empty because everyone else was sleeping in this Saturday, Sakura decided to show him around the school grounds. As they strolled, she began absentmindedly humming a tune that had popped into her head.

"Is that a song from _Phantom of the Opera_ **(1) **you're humming?" Kaiba inquired, recognizing the melody.

The albino demon blushed. "Yeah, it is. Dumbledore took me to see it in London when I first came to England—he has a liking for muggle plays—and I've been obsessed with it ever since. You ever see it?" They had come to a large rock as high as Seto's torso near the edge of the Forbidden forest and Sakura climbed up it and sat down.

"Yeah, Gozaburo took me on one of his business trips and the tycoon he was cutting a deal with took us to see it. I thought it would be torture, but it really wasn't all that bad." Seto shook his head as he stood beside the rock. "Damn, I haven't been this open with someone in... forever."

"I've noticed that you tend to shy away from interaction with others. How come?"

"It was part of my stepfather's training."

"Training for what?"

"Taking over Kaiba Corp."

Now Kaiba was the one getting the weird look.

"Kaiba Corps wasn't always a gaming company like it is today. In Gozaburo's time it made weapons of war."

"That's terrible."

"He considered my emotions weaknesses and using certain _methods_ trained me to become cold, unfeeling, detached."

He noticed Sakura's eyes had a very strange emotion in them. She looked both sorrowful for him and filled with anger at what he had told her his stepfather had done. Deciding not to waste time figuring out what the look meant, he continued.

"It's worse than you know. For many years after his death, I was the cold, heartless monster he had molded me into. Then Yugi and I dueled, and from that point on I realized what had happened to me. How fucked up my life had become. Mokuba was my only companion; otherwise I was truly alone..."

"The boggart, that's what it changed into when you faced it. That old man in the hidious pinkish business suit?"

He nodded.

Sakura reached out to Kaiba and took one of his hands in one of hers. "You don't have to be alone... not anymore," she said simply. "I used to think the same thing, that is until Britts and Lara reached out and told me they didn't care about my heritage. Perhaps you just need someone to do the same for you."

Seto's sapphire eyes searched her wine-red ones, searching for falsehood, for deceit, but found none only acceptance. He leaned in close to her so that his lips were nearly touching her cheek and said two simple words he hadn't said to anyone in a long time: "You're right." His free hand gently lifted her face to his until their lips met in a sweet, gentle kiss.

Sakura had no idea what was happening to her; never in her life had she felt this way, or even dreamed she could for that matter. A thousand strange feelings were erupting inside her. She felt dizzy, excited, and terrified all at once as the hand that had been in hers wrapped around her waist. When Kaiba pulled away, she wasn't sure how to react, part of her wanted to grab him by the neck of his robes and pull him back to her, but more than half of her wanted to run. That part got the better of her, for the next thing she was doing was wriggling out of his embrace and sprinting towards the castle, limpingbecause of her bad knee.

Kaiba hung his head. He had been afraid of this. As soon as he got his hopes up about someone--they rejected him, leaving him as cold and empty as before.

The white-haired girl flew up the steps, dashed to the Fat Lady's portrait, barely mumbled the password and burst into her dormitory, slamming the door behind her. She sunk to the floor, gasping for air; elbows in her hands,

"Sakura, did you have to slam the door?" Hermione moaned as she was abruptly awokenfrom her slumber.

"Yeah, some of us actually like to sleep in on Saturdays," Lara groaned, pulling her pillow over her head.

Britts awoke as well, but before she could say anything she laid eyes on Sakura. She was paler than she normally was, and her wide eyes staring blankly at the floor. Never before had she seen her friend in this state. Worried, she rushed over and put her arms around the girl. "Sakura, what's happened? Tell me please."

"Britts, I'm scared."

At this pronouncement the eyes of the three girls that were up widened. Hermione even fell out of bed in utter shock. Sakura Yasha... that fiery Demon teenager... scared! That was something that just didn't happen;Sakura was fearless, with guts made of unbreakable diamond. When they had to add something gross to a concoction in potions class, Sakura was the only girl who didn't flinch or make a face when she added it to her cauldron, with her bare hands no less.

Everyone was now wide awake except for Lavender Brown—she was so thick she could sleep through an earthquake and still not wake up.** (2)**

Lara immediately leapt out of bed and ran over to the two teens on the floor. Hermione soon joined them. "Fangs, you are the daughter of Inu-Yasha. What possibly could have gotten you so shook up?" Lara asked.

"It's... Kaiba," she croaked. Her throat had suddenly become very dry and she found it very hard to talk. "He... kissed me..."

Everyone's eyes dropped and, if it had been humanly possible, eyeballs would have instantly popped out of their sockets. Sakura, who swore she would never have a romantic interest with anyone—man, woman, or demon, just lip-locked with the richest and most eligible bachelor in all Japan! And it had scared her shitless! WTF!

-8-8-8-8-8-8-

"Why so melancholy, big brother?" Mokuba asked as he watched the blue-eyed dragon shuffle his dueling deck for the fifteenth time in a row.

Kaiba didn't answer. It had been nearly week since he and Sakura had their passionate exchange by the forest and she hadn't spoken or made contact with him since. In fact, she seemed to be avoiding him. Not to mention that the O.W.L's were due to start in less than two days and he hadn't studied one bit.

"Are youstill upset because sweet Sakura isn't talking to you?" Bakura taunted, appearing on his hikari's bed in spirit form.

"Shut-up tomb-robber!" the C.E.O. retorted.

"I think he hit a sore spot," Ron muttered. He, Harry, and all the Japanese boys had gathered in their dormitory, away from all the hustle and bustle of the common room. Dean, Neville, and Samus had been moved to another dormitory to make room for the new boys.

Not wanting this conversation to continue a moment longer, Kaiba pulled out his laptop and began typing.

Suddenly, Mokuba shut the computer, almost snapping his brother's fingers, but thanks to Kaiba's quick reflexes, his phalanges were spared. "You have to go talk to her, Seto! You just gotta!"

"What are you talking about, Mokuba?"

"Sakura; if you're so damn crazy about her, try telling her how you feel. She'll listen, I just know it." Mokuba gave his brother puppy-dog eyes to convince him even more.

Kaiba let out a growl. "Fine," he said, giving in.

"Cool, let's go find her now, no time like the present." The black-haired colt grabbed his older brother's hand, dragged him towards the door, down the staircase, and over to a pack of first years. "Hey Lindsey!"

A blonde girl that looked like a mini-Britts only with greenish eyesturned around. "Yeah Mokuba?"

"Know where Britts and Sakura might be?"

"Britts mentioned something about going outside and playing cards, no idea where though."

"Thanks,"

Outside, the Kaiba brothers saw Lara, Britts, and Sakura sitting on the ground playing cards with some other sixth year girls from Ravenclaw, who were seated on some benches.

"Alright Carole, beat this: four of a kind, eights," said one of the Ravenclaw girls as she put down her cards for all to see.

"I fold, I got nothing," Sakura put down her hand, a hodgepodge of cards that didn't have a single match.

"What you got, goddess of innocence incarnate?" Lara asked, using a name she sometimes used to refer to Britts.

"Straight, in clubs," Britts laid down her playing cards.

The rest of the Ravenclaw girls folded.

"Looks like I beat all of you: Royal Flush!" Lara proclaimed proudly.

"That's because you cheat," Sakura muttered.

"No, I don't; I just use a bunch of old family card tricks," Lara retorted.

"Cheater," Sakura said stubbornly.

"Was that supposed to be an insult?" Kaiba asked from behind her.

Sakura's eyes widened for a minute then she turned around and saw Seto and Mokuba. "Oh hi," she said quietly, not getting up her spot on the earth.

Kaiba knelt down to her height. "I was wondering if I could speak to you... alone." he cast a sideways glance at the Ravenclaw girls who were trying hard not to giggle.

Sakura nodded, got up, and followed him to an empty classroom. "So, what is it?"

"Last Saturday,"

The demon-girl's face fell. "Oh, that..."

Seto gently grasped her by the upper arms and gazed deeply into her eyes. "Sakura, I wanted to apologize for what happened. We've only known each other for three weeks now and I understand if that was..."

"Unexpected physical contact," Sakura put in.

"Yes, but I really do care for you and..." He leaned forward to kiss her, but before he could, Sakura put a hand on his mouth to stop him and turned away.

"Seto, I'm sorry." She stared deeply into his eyes. "But I can't do this... " Hesitating only for a moment, she twisted out of his arms and ran out the door.

Kaiba said nothing, just stared after her. The voice of his stepfather echoed in his head: _"Seto, you ridiculous boy! There's no such thing as love! All there is, is lust and once your so-called lover becomes bored with you, they will move on to prey on others; leaving you more empty and alone than before."_ Suddenly a familiar voice interrupted his thoughts.

"Bee in your bonnet, Seto Kaiba?"

-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-

(1) I do not own _Phantom of the Opera,_ but it's an awesome movie, soundtrack, and play.

(2) I don't like Lavender Brown very much. Especially in the 6th book.

**Anaya's Creator: **Please review.


	7. Cubid be Damned

**Anaya's Creator:** Chapter 7. Yippee! It's the weekend, Yippee! Cue the reviews, Kaiba, if you please.

**Kaiba:** (unenthusiastically) Ta-da.

**Zuko's 1 and Only:**

Remember the sixth book, that's only as far asVoldemort is going to interfere. Sorry. Sakura's not really going to change.

**Arrathir:**

I know it's constructive critizism; and it's appreciated. Cannonical charactors? Sakura has many flaws, they'll be exposed in a few chapters.

**Anaya's Creator:** I don't own Harry Potter, Yu-Gi-Oh, or Inu-Yasha.

Chapter 7: _Cupid be Damned!_

The brunette turned around and saw Professor Dumbledore seated on one of the empty desks. "How did you get in here without Sakura or me noticing?" he demanded.

"I have my ways, Mr. Kaiba," the headmaster answered, smiling pleasantly. He walked over to the youth. "So, some romantic feelings have transpired between you and my niece. I was wondering why she wasn't quite herself this week."

"Sir, I don't have time for this," Kaiba said, walking towards the door.

"What if I told you she returned your feelings?"

Seto halted and faced the teacher, a hauteur of defiance and doubt evident in his eyes. "I don't believe you. How can I? You probably saw what happened. She said she couldn't be with me. Besides, how would you know?"

Dumbledore chuckled softly. "You have much to learn about Sakura, Seto. I could see it in her eyes and I noticed her slight hesitance when leaving your grasp."

Kaiba stared at the professor, not saying a word.

"Lately, I have sensed a bond between you two. It seems to me that some invisible subconscious force that even I cannot explain draws you both to each other. A bond that formed centuries ago, millennia even." Kaiba suddenly cut him off.

"If you're going to say this has something to do with me being a high priest in ancient Egypt, you've lost it too."

"Ancient Egypt?"

Realizing that Dumbledore had no idea what he was talking about, Seto muttered, "Never mind."

"Anyway, get through the O.W.L.s this week and don't worry about Sakura; she does return your feelings, she'll come to you when she is ready. Trust me on this."

-8-Dream-8-

"_You say she was cornered by a group of man servants that had beaten her and were about to rape her, Priest Seto?" asked an unfamiliar male voice._

"_Yes, Priest Mahado," someone who sounded a lot like Seto Kaiba replied._

"_It matters not how she was found. I say we imprison her kaa. It must hold power of some kind after an incident such as that."_

"_Calm yourself, Akunadin," chastised a cool woman's voice. "We have no reason to do such a thing to this young woman."_

_So many voices, they echoed in her head and muddled together as she lay on a bed of soft hay, her head resting on a headrest. There were linen hangings around her bed, hiding whoever was speaking from view. Sakura's eyes wandered to the clothes, which were made of pleated linen, and her hair was back in several braids again. She turned and looked at the hard object that her head was resting on. It was made of ebony and there were hieroglyphics carved into it. _

'I must be that girl from my dream again and judging from my surroundings she lived in ancient Egypt,_' she thought. Her hand touched where her cheek had been struck and felt a lukewarm paste on it. She glanced at her shoulder and saw some balm had been spread on it as well. That priest who had rescued her from those thugs must have taken her to a healer like he said he would._

"_I must insist, better safe than sorry. We need the most powerful kaas we can get."_

"_What makes you think she's so powerful, Akunadin?"_

"_Your odd interference, Priest Seto. You don't meddle in the affairs of those below you unless you see some sort of self-gain."_

_Cautiously, Sakura pulled back the hangings and she saw several strangers dressed in fine linen clothing. Two of them, as far as she could tell were female. One was tall and full-grown with hair covered by white cloth and a golden headdress while a golden necklace adorned her neck. The other was quite the opposite. She looked no more than ten and had long brown hair and bright blue eyes that sparkled like the waters in the Nile._

_As for the men, one of them had his back to her and looked exactly like Yami from behind. Another was her rescuer, the Seto Kaiba clone. There was an old man with a short silver beard and mustache with an eye made of gold. The last man was covered in linen and had a ring with a pyramid in the center with some charms hanging off of it._

"_We don't even know who she is. She could be a spy or even a thief," the man with the golden eye insisted._

_Kaiba's look a like suddenly looked in her direction. "Why don't you just use your Millennium Eye to find out Akunadin? She's up," he pointed out impassively._

_The man with the golden eye approached her, his remaining human eye relentlessly staring her down. There was a flash of blinding light and Sakura could feel the man's gaze penetrate her soul. "Her name is Sanura, she is a servant in the kitchens." he admitted at last._

"_Well," said Yami's look a like. "Just so we can keep an eye on her, I propose that she serves one of us and since Priest Seto is the one who found her, it seems only fair that she becomes his servant."_

"_What!" Priest Seto and Akunadin exclaimed simultaneously._

'_Hey don't I get any input on this!' Sakura thought furiously. She banged her fist on the bed to show her frustration. But then the scene around her began to melt away into blackness._

-8-End Dream-8-

Sakura awoke the next morning with her heart pounding so hard it was giving her a headache. It was still night, according to her watch it was now quarter after one. _Man, not only do I have to worry about the O.W.L.s this week, I keep getting these weird dreams that wake me up in the middle of the night, just peachy. Sanura... that's who I am to people in my dreams... I wonder if, like Yami, Bakura, and Seto, I have a past life in ancient Egypt too. That would explain why I can't speak in these dreams and why I don't act in them as I normally would._

-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-

The O.W.L.s started promptly the next morning after breakfast. There was a written test in the morning, then a short break and lunch, followed by the practical examination in the afternoon. The end result was four very physically and mentally exhausted teenagers putting off the thought of even more studying for the next day.

"I don't know how much more of this I can take," Ryou moaned as he collapsed into a squashy armchair beside the hearth with his head held in one of his pale hands. It was incredibly late Wednesday night after their Astronomy practical and hell, were these students worn out.

/Whine, whine, whine; that's all I hear nowadays from you, hikari. Toughen up and take it like a man/ Bakura growled over his and Ryou's mind link.

/Well, you try going for a week doing nothing but taking tests or studying every waking moment. Besides, I have a roaring headache, so leave me alone/ As the poor suffering white-haired boy massaged his temples, it felt like a heard of African elephants were running throughout his brain.

Worried, Britts got out some Headache Potion and gave it to him to drink.

"If you guys think it's bad this year, it was even worse last year with that Umbridge hag watching over us like a hungry vulture," Sakura said as she stumbled through the portrait hole with Kaiba bringing up the rear. "Not to mention this is my second year going through this torture." She was so out of it that without noticing she fell backwards onto Seto, who put his arms around her so she wouldn't fall to the floor.

"I'll take her up to bed, Kaiba," Lara said, slinging her friend's arm over her shoulder. "The staircase to our dorms won't let boys go up it."

"That's peculiar. Girls are allowed in our dormitories," Seto pointed out.

"It's just the way the castle works." Lara turned and in no time she and Sakura were up the staircase and out of sight, followed soon by Britts.

"I saw that," remarked a little voice from around Kaiba's middle.

Seto looked down and saw Mokuba standing right next to him. How his little brother got there without him noticing, he had no idea. "Mokuba, what are you doing up? It's after midnight; you should be in bed," he scolded.

The little boy flashed him a big innocent smile. "But big brother, I _had_ to stay up until you got back. I _had_ to make sure you were okay."

"I appreciate it kiddo; to bed with you, now."

With a disappointed look on his face, Mokuba obeyed.

"Lucky for us, the N.E.W.T. classes are still reviewing and we won't have to make up the work we missed," Yugi commented, yawning. Otherwise, we'd never catch up. I don't know about you guys, but I'm going to bed. G'night."

"I think I'll turn in too," Ryou said, reluctantly pulling himself out of the comfy chair he had nearly fallen asleep in to follow the tri-colored hair midget.

A little while later, everyone had fallen asleep, except for Yugi Motou. He was sitting on his four-poster bed with the hangings drawn, despite the fact his body was begging for sleep.Then from out of nowhere a translucent figure that looked exactly like him, only older and with violet-crimson eyes, appeared beside him. "You should really be sleeping, Yugi. It's gonna be another long day tomorrow. Is something troubling you?" it asked.

"I guess all these tests are starting to get to me, Yami." He looked inquiringly at the figure. "But you've been acting strange lately too. Ever since that incident in the library you've spent much time looking at Sakura, not as if you like her, more like she reminds you of someone, but you can't figure out who."

"Indeed, she d—" Yami was suddenly cut off by Yugi muttering, "Grandpa, when is the next Duel Monsters tournament starting?" in his sleep. He smiled at his younger double and disappeared.

-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-

The weekend finally rolled around and Yugi, Ryou, and Sakura spent most of Saturday catching up on some well deserved sleep while Seto was checking up on Kaiba Corp, much to his little brother's displeasure.

"Seto, you really need to get some rest," Mokuba insisted. The kid had a point. By the end of the week all four of them were unusually pale and had bags under their eyes and his older brother had been no exception. Not to mention that Yugi and Ryou couldn't even drag themselves out of bed for breakfast that morning. Britts had said that Sakura had even needed to take some dreamless sleep potion before she went to bed the previous night in order to fall asleep.

"Nonsense, Mokuba," Kaiba argued. "I haven't had a chance to make certain nothing's gone wrong back home for a week."

"Kaiba Corp is fine, trust me on this bro."

Near evening, the demon girl finally woke up. A small smile came to her face as she saw Stitch curled up beside her. "At last, those damn tests are over and life can go back to normal, eh Stitch?" she murmured as she scratched his back. _Normal... _Her smile suddenly faded as she remembered the confession Kaiba had made to her nearly a week before.

Noticing his mistress' expression, Stitch crawled closer to Sakura and snuggled against her chest comfortingly.

"I just don't get it, Stitch. What is it that he sees in me? Out of all the girls her could want, he picks me, an albino tomboy with dog ears that isn't even pure human."

"Perhaps in all the time you two have spent together, he's learned to look past your gruff part-demon exterior," suggested a voice.

Sakura rolled over and saw Britts sitting on the side of her bed. "You think?" the albino asked doubtfully, raising an eyebrow.

"No, we know so," Lara said as she stepped out from behind Sakura's bed hangings. "Oh, and welcome back to the land of the living; I was beginning to wonder if you'd ever wake up. Then the only person I'd have to win chocolate off the other girls is our little goddess of innocence here." She jabbed her thumb at Britts to emphasize her point.

"Jesting aside, even if he can does really like me. I don't even know how I feel," Sakura told them.

"Well,Britts and I noticed you hesitated when you tore yourself from his arms when he admitted he cared for you," Lara confessed.

"You guys were spying on us!" The demon girl leapt out of bed and grabbed the blonde by the neck of her robes, the flames of rage blazing in her eyes.

"For emotional support I might add," Laraadded hastilyas Sakura released her. "Plus, if you did only see him as a friend you would have been able to talk to Kaiba normally these past two weeks instead of shying away from him. How do you feel when he's near you?"

"I'm not sure, I guess I feel calmer... safer when he's with me. And my heart beats so fast I can barely hear anything else."

"And when he kissed you?" Britts inquired.

"Giddy, overjoyed and apprehensive all at once..." Sakura chuckled softly at her stupidity as the truth became clear to her. "God, I'm stupid. I've got to find Seto." She turned on her heel and flew out the door.

"Well, that was easy," Britts said as she let out a long held in breath.

"Excellent work, my friend. With our help, I think Cupid's persistent arrow has finally penetrated the iron heart of Sakura," Lara said a broad smile forming on her face as the sound of Sakura's footsteps faded away. The two friends exchanged high-fives then followed their friend. "Now we just need to get you to tell the same to Ryou,"

"Lara!" Britts exclaimed, blushing madly.

"Mokuba, where's your brother?" Sakura asked when she had reached the common room. Seto wasn't there.

"He said he was going for a walk by the lake."

"Thanks kiddo," she gave him an appreciative pat on the shoulder and rushed out of the common room.

Outside the sun was setting behind the mountains, casting long shadows from the trees of the Forbidden Forest. As Sakura came down the steps of the castle she saw a vague figure standing on the edge of the lake, staring into its darkening depths.

"Seto!" she shouted as she ran towards him.

-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-

**Anaya's Creator: **Please review.


	8. Hogsmeade

**Anaya's Creator:** Thank God it's the weekend!

**Kaiba:** Agreed.

**Anaya's Creator:** Oh, love your KC Tournament so far, Kaiba. Though, Vivian Wong needs to die and why does Siegfried dress like a gay guy?

**Siegfried von Schraider:** I do not!

**Anaya's Creator:** Do too! You know what, come to think of it. All you bad tycoons seem to dress like gay guys in those odd-colored business suits, except for Seto.

**Kaiba:** (smirks)

**Anaya's Creator:** Cue da reviews!

**Arrathar:**

If I told you that, I'd have to kill you.

**Zuko's one and only:**

Good idea, but how to put it into play... I'll think of something.

**Siegfried von Schraider:** You put all that effort into your writing and only get two reviews! Ha, what a laugh.

**Anaya's Creator:** Shut up, pink-haired most likely gay person! (Kicks him out the window) I don't own Harry Potter, Yu-Gi-Oh, or Inu-Yasha. Beware Kaiba OOCness.

Chapter 6: _Hogsmeade_

Seto Kaiba turned at the sound of his name and felt something slam into him, making him stagger backward a few steps. His gaze traveled to what had almost knocked him over and saw a certain albino staring back at him. The very last of the sunlight lit up her crimson eyes as it disappeared behind the mountains and the stars in the darkened sky around them blinked into view one by one.

"Seto," Sakura said softly. The demon-girl paused, struggling to find the words she was attempting to articulate. "I..." but Kaiba put a finger to her lips, silencing her.

"Are you trying to say you're ready to do this?" he inquired, presuming what she was trying to tell him.

She nodded.

Kaiba moved his hand to her check and looped his other arm around her waist, pulling her closer. Their faced here barely an inch apart when an all too familiar voice interuppted them. "My goodness, isn't this romantic? A moonlit kiss beneath the stars, reminds me of Lord Inu-Yasha and Lady Kagome's first kiss..."

The couple broke apart and saw an infamous flea demon buzzing in the air beside them.

"Myoga, for once in your pathetic existence, I actually want you to buzz off!" the albino growled irascibly, her face glowing red as she backhanded the inch-high insect from the air to wherever devil may give a damn. "Grr... that worthless parasite officially takes the cake for having the worst timing ever!"

"Forget him," Kaiba murmured, drawing her back to him. "Now where were we?"

Sakura grinned, and moments later the lovers' lips met in a sweet, passionate embrace. Her hands moved from Seto's chest to around his neck, deepening the kiss._Sweet completion,_ that strange, new feeling excited her to no end, making her yearn for more. For the first time in six years, the demon-girl felt the void in her heart, left by the murder of her parents, being filled again.

Kaiba possessively tightened his hold on her as he hungrily ravished her mouth with even more passion than before. He broke away for a moment and gazed at her face, which was flushed and glowed in the moonlight. She was hot, breathless, and leaning against him for support. He bent down and was about to start kissing her neck when a loud, booming voice cried out, "Hey, get back up to the castle, you two! It's past time for you to be in your dormitories."

Reluctantly, the pair let go of each other and walked back up to the school together, hands entwined.

Once the two of them were inside the castle, Sakura turned to Kaiba, "We have to be completely silent or Filch will skin us alive," she warned. So in cautious silence, the couple crept through the halls. Occasionally, they would have to duck into an empty classroom or behind suit of armor, tapestry, or statue because they would have to dodge Filch, Mrs. Norris, or Peeves; however, mostly it was just the two of them. Finally, after wandering the corridors forforty minutes (they took the long way), the two of them reached the Fat Lady's portrait. They gave her the password and walked into the common room, which fortunately was empty.

"Well, good night," Sakura said when they had reached the stairs to their separate dormitories. Seto's arm hooked around her waist and brought her to him once more.

"Good night, my angel," he whispered softly. He tenderly kissed her cheek then departed to the guys dorms.

Sakura turned and leaned her back against the wall, biting her bottom lip slightly as she pondered the events of the past month. She had gone from thinking Kaiba as nothing but an irritating pain in her ass, to a friend, then to someone she'd rather avoid, and now he was her boyfriend. Could her life get any stranger or complicated than this? As she stood there, her hand went into her robes and pulled out a large marble-sized, mother-of-pearl colored gem strung on a thin leather cord with a dog demon fang hanging on either side of it, the Jewel of Four Souls.

"I guess great-grandpa must have been right about you," she muttered as she stared at the gem. "You do bring good luck. Now, if only that luck would help me remember answers for tests." She chuckled at the nonsense she was spouting out, tucked the necklace back under her robes, and went up to bed.

The next month passed by in total bliss for Sakura and Kaiba. At request from the albino demon, the only ones who knew about the relationship were Lara, Britts, Hermione, Harry, Ron, Yugi, Ryou, and Mokuba. N.E.W.T. classes had finished reviewing and the real work had begun, which meant more homework and more studying for our band of sixth years. Harry was now captain of the Quidditch team, so after tryouts were held, he made sure that in between the practices and classes his team members could still get all their school work done. Thank God for that.

One day near the end of October, while she and the others were doing work, Sakura noticed a rather large swarm of Gryffindors had gathered around the board in their common room.

"Mokuba, could you get through the crowd and see what all the commotion's about, please?" Sakura requested.

"Why me?" Mokuba inquired.

"Because I can't read it from here and I have tons of homework to do."

"Only if you give me some of those jellybeans you're eating," he requested, gesturing to the big red bag of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans next to the demon girl's homework.

Sakura eyed her precious sugar supply warily then reluctantly said, "Deal. i have a smaller bag of them in my backpack you can have."

The raven-haired boydivedinto the crowd, slipped through to the board (which was fairly easily because of his small stature) and come back in a matter of moments. "It's something about a trip for third years and higher to somewhere called Hogsmeade this Saturday."

"Finally!" Lara exclaimed, throwing down her quill. "I was wondering when they were going to give us a break and let us go there."

"Thanks Mokuba. Here're your jelly beans," Sakura pulled out a smaller sack of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans out of her bag and tossed it at him.

"What's Hogsmeade?" Ryou inquired

"It's the local village," Britts explained, "The only non-muggle settlement in all of Britain. There's Honeyduke's--the sweetshop, the Shrieking Shack, Zonko's Joke Shop and more. We'll have to give you guys a tour."

"Saturday's Seto's birthday, Sakura," Mokuba said, popping a jelly bean in his mouth.

"Really?" Sakura turned to her boyfriend. "Why didn't you tell me? How old will you be? I'll see if I can get you something."

"Seventeen, and please don't," Kaiba muttered, but judging from the look in Sakura's eyes, she was already planning something and there was absolutely nothing he could do about it.

That Saturday came as quickly as angels flying on their wings. That morning Sakura dressed in a pair of loose-fitting blue jeans that flared out at the bottom and a shaggy red t-shirt that brought out the ruby hue of her eyes beneath a long-sleeved jean shirt. Her hair was down from its usual braid and nearly reached her waist, though she still wore her infamous blue hat to hide her dog ears. **(A/N: I'm following the movie Prisoner of Azkaban here, where they're allowed to wear muggle cloths to Hogsmeade.)**

"Can't you go one day without wearing that hat?" Seto asked as they strolled down to Hogsmeade. (The rest of their group had already gone ahead.). He was in his blue trench coat and green shirt and pants.

"I could but I'd rather not," she replied.

"Take it off,"

"No,"

"Just for today,"

"Why should I?"

"Because it's my birthday,"

"I have a will of iron, Kaiba; just try to break it."

"Please take it off the hat, for me,"

Sakura stared at him, stunned. "That has got to be the first time I have ever heard you say please."

"So will you take it off?"

"I don't think so," but she saw him smirk and instantly her face grew even paler than it already was. _Uh-oh, I sense trouble..._ she thought.

Kaiba suddenly snatched the hat off his girlfriend's head, revealing her white dog ears, and held it high above her head.

"Seto don't; give it back!" Sakura exclaimed, jumping to reach it.

"Say you won't wear it,"

"No, I gotta,"

"Why? Everyone already knows you're a demoness, why try to conceal it?"

"Because mortals don't know when to stop whispering and pointing; now give it back to me."

"Promise me you won't wear it for today,"

Sakura stopped trying to take her had away from Kaiba and let out a loud sigh. "Fine, you win. I won't."

"You swear?"

"Yes, you have my word."

Seto lowered her hat, gave it back to her, and then ran his hand along her jawbone. "I love it when I win," he murmured and kissed her on the cheek. "So what are we doing today?"

Sakura gave him a coy smile as she put her hat in a pocket inside her jacket and they started walking towards the village. "Well... I thought we could just mosey around Hogsmeade, just the two of us. See anything you like, point it out and I'll buy it, but you aren't allowed to run me dry."

Seto chuckled.

The couple spent the next hours that passed running about Hogsmeade. Sakura took him everywhere. They went inside the post office, which had owls of every size and breed to send letters with, depending on how far the distance was and how fast you wanted the letter to get there. Kaiba didn't really like Zonko's Joke Shop, but he picked out a few things Mokuba would like. Around lunchtime they passed a place called Madam Puddifoot's, a small tea shop where everything was decorated in frills or bows. A look of extreme nausea came to their faces as they stood outside the prissy café.

"Let's go to Three Broomsticks," Sakura suggested, her face mirroring the sickened look on her boyfriend's face. "There're no frills there." She took his hand and after ten minutes of walking they reached a tiny inn.

Three Broomsticks was warm, smoky, and packed. There was a curvy woman with a rosy complexion serving a group of menacing-looking goblins at the bar.

"That's Madam Rosmerta," Sakura said. "How about you find us a seat and I'll get the butterbeer."

"But Sakura, we can't drink that stuff; we're underage," Kaiba pointed out.

"What are you talking about? This is England, not Japan, as long as we're over fifteen we're allowed to drink** (1)**. Besides, butterbeer has barely any alcohol in it, anyone can drink it."

"If you say so," Seto quickly kissed her on the forehead and left to find a place for them to sit at when she returned.

The red-eyed girl blushed slightly, absentmindedly twirling a loose strand of white hair around her finger. _Oh great,_ she thought. _I've reduced myself to a pitiful, naïve, love-sick teenager. What in the worlds will become of me next?_

"I saw that, said a voice from behind her.

The albino turned and saw the rosy-faced inn woman looking at her with an impish smile. "Oh Madame Rosmerta, two mugs of butterbeer please."

"Nice young man you got there, Sakura. Is this a date?" the lady asked as she filled two cups with a honey-colored foaming beverage.

"Possibly," she took the tankards and walked over to the table where Kaiba was sitting at by the window.

"Hey angel," he greeted as she sat down beside him. His arm reached across her shoulders as she leaned against him. They sat there for a while in content silence, sipping their steaming drinks and merely enjoying each others presence. But the moment was ruined when they overheard the conversation of some warlocks sitting behind them.

"Did you hear? All them Death Eaters that were put in Azkaban bailed out."

"Not surprising, did you hear about all those dementor attacks this summer,"

"Not just this summer, they're still happening aren't they?"

"But it's not really that surprising now, is it? The Dark Lord's returned now. Don't know who to trust no more."

At this, Sakuraput downdown her tankard, her head in her hand.

"Sakura, what is it? Is something wrong?" Seto asked.

"I just need some air." Leaving a few sickles on the table, she left without any further explanation.

After about ten minutes following her, Sakura stopped at a rusted iron fence, yards away from a graying run-down house that seemed to be about ready to collapse. "What's this place?" he asked as he walked up to her.

She ignored his question. "He's bailed himself out. It's only a matter of time before he comes after me again," Sakura told him.

"What are you talking about?" Seto inquired.

Sakura faced her boyfriend, her eyes a burning, tear-filled mixture of fury, anguish, and sorrow. "Lucius Malfloy! He is one of the Death Eaters, the one that slaughtered my family! And now it's only a matter of time before he comes after me!"

The C.E.O. looped his arms around her. "He's comming after you?" he asked, surprised.

"To finish what he started." Tears were now gushing from her eyes into an endless torrent of misery as her arms wrapped around his back. "Last year, Harry, me, and a few other students went into the Ministry of Magic. The Death Eaters were trying to steal a prophecy and we went after them, thinking we would rescue Harry's godfather, Sirius Black. But Sirius wasn't there, Harry had been tricked. It all led to a huge fight with the Death Eaters. Lucius had cornered me and had me at wand point. He would have killed me if the Order of Phoenix hadn't arrived."

Kaiba was silent, unsure of what to say to the weeping girl in his arms. After a few minutes, she calmed down and broke away from him.

"Sorry about that," she said, wiping away her tears. "Hearing that news just shook me up and I lost control, forgive me."

"There's nothing to forgive," Seto said, putting an arm around her shoulders as they sat down on the ground facing the deteriorating house. "So what's this place called? We haven't been here yet."

"It's called the Shrieking Shack, said to be the most haunted dwelling in all of Britain, according to village rumors," Sakura answered.

"Is it really haunted?"

"Are you kidding? Of course not! All the howls and moans were made by a student who would transform into a werewolf every full moon. The townspeople claimed that violent spirits inhabited it. Dumbledore encouraged that nonsense and to this day none of them dare to approach it, despite that the house has been silent for years."

"Fascinating,"

"Yup; and just think Seto, once you leave Hogwarts at the end of this year the muggle world will seem so boring to you without magic."

"That's not the only reason I'd be bored," Kaiba reached over and tenderly pulled her face towards his. They were seconds away from kissing when a malevolent voice shouted: "Well, well, looky here. It appears that the rich and famous Seto Kaiba has a thing for part-demon trash."

-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-

**(1)** I know in Germany everyone is allowed to drink at age 15. I don't know if that applies to all of Europe, but I'm making it. In Japan you can't drink until your 20.

**Anaya's Creator: **Please review.

**Siegfried:** Or don't and make her cry.

**Anaya's Creator:** (gives him the boot again) When someone finally beats those gay pants off of you is when I'll cry, cause I'll be laughing so hard!


	9. Quidditch!

**Anaya's Creator:** Kaiba, will you dance with me for German Club?

**Kaiba:** Give me one good reason I should do that.

**Anaya's Creator:** Because I need a partner.

**Kaiba: **You'll step on my feet!

**Anaya's Creator: **Not on purpose!

**Kaiba:** Right...

**Anaya's Creator:** Please!

**Zuko's one and only:**

I'm trying, I'm trying.

**Anaya's Creator:** I don't own Harry Potter, Yu-Gi-Oh, or Inu-Yasha.

Chapter 9: _Quidditch!_

The couple turned and saw Draco Malfloy staring at them with a loathsome smirk on his pale face, unlike at school his cronies Crabbe and Goyle weren't with him.

"What are _you_ doing here, Malfloy?" Kaiba demanded coldly.

"Oh nothing, Kaiba; I was just paying a visit to the good, old Shrieking Shack when you and that half-breed came out of no where."

"You lie," Sakura spat as Malfloy approached them. "You can't have been here, I would have smelled you!"

"How dare you talk to me, you worthless seed of Satan! Honestly Kaiba, I don't know why you've gotten with her..." but he was cut off by a powerful punch at his nose from Sakura.

The blonde boy fell to the ground, his nose messy with blood, but the demon-girl didn't stop there, she grabbed the neck of his robes and pulled him off the ground slightly. "You're the one who should be called seed of Satan. Especially after what your father did to me and my family," she hissed. "And when you see that devil of a father of yours give him a message for me. Tell him that Sakura Yasha is ready for him and the next time she sees his sorry soul, she'll make sure that he will never be able to harm others again." She released Malfloy's robes from her death grip and he fell to the ground in a bloody heap.

Suddenly a scream pierced the air.

"It came from by Three Broomsticks," Sakura said and ran off in that direction, coming close to falling occasionally because of her limp.

Seto sighed. "How come I always get mixed up with the noble people," he muttered as he went after her.

By the time they reached the pub, a girl was withering and screaming on the ground and Hermione, Ron, and another girl trying to quiet her.

"Katie!" Sakura shouted as she went over to the convulsing and screaming Chaser.

"Good God," Kaiba murmured.

"Get back! Lemme see her!" shouted a familiar voice; Sakura turned and saw Hagrid and Harry coming towards them.

"Something's happened to her," sobbed the other girl. "I don't know what —"

"Calm down, calm down, I'll take her up to the castle," Hagrid told her. He stared at Katie for a moment, then picked her up and carried her back to school. Within moments, Katie's shrieks had faded and all that was left to be heard was the howling wind.

"What happened?" asked a new voice.

The group of teens turned to see Lara, Britts, Yugi, and Ryou approaching.

"The package tore," the weeping girl told them, pointing at a ripped package that was dampening in the muck on the ground. A green glitter peeked at them through the brown paper. Entranced by the glimmer, Yugi bent down to pick it up when Harry seized his wrist.

"_Don't touch it!"_ he ordered, crouching to see the object better. "It's an opal necklace; it was on display at Borgin and Burkes ages ago. There was a sign that said not to touch it because of a curse. Katie must have..." he looked up at the girl who was starting to quiver violently. "How did she get this, Leanne?"

"That's why we were arguing. She came back from the bathroom with it. She told me it was a surprise for someone at Hogwarts that she needed to deliver. She looked a little strange when she said it... Oh no, she must have been Imperiused and I didn't notice!"

The distressed girl broke out in tears once again. Hermione patted her shoulder comfortingly.

"What does she mean "imperiused"?" Ryou asked.

"Put under the Imperious Curse, one of the three unforgivable curses. It allows the caster to control the mind and actions of their victim," Britts explained, shuddering.

"We should takeher and the necklaceup to school," Hermione suggested.

No one objected.

"I bet Malfloy's behind this," Harry told them as the group walked onto the school grounds. "He knows about it. It was in a case at Borgins and Burkes four years ago, I glimpsed him looking at it when I was hiding from him and his dad. This was what he was buying that day when we followed him! He remembered it and went back for it!"

"Harry, I may not have been with you that day when you followed him," Sakura objected. "But I doubt he was behind this. He was up by the Shrieking Shack taunting Seto and me before we got here. He'd have to be pretty fast to put that in the girl's bathroom and then run up to us at the shack. Plus, how could he have snuck into a girl's bathroom and not get caught?"

"Leanne said Katie claimed she got it from the girl's bathroom, it doesn't mean she did."

"Lots of people go to that shop—McGonagall," Ron told them warningly.

And sure enough, there was Professor McGonagall hastening down the steps towards them. "Hagrid says some you saw what happened to Katie Bell— those who did upstairs to my office, the rest of you may go. Potter, what's in that scarf?"

"It was what she touched," he answered.

"Good lord," she said as she took it from him. "Filch, they're with me," she added. Looking severly disappointed,the caretaker creptaway with his Secrecy Sensor. "Miss Yasha, take this to Professor Snape. Make certain that you don't touch it!"

"Yes ma'am," Sakura took the necklace, bowed her head to the professor and left.

The next morning, Katie Bell had been taken to St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries and just about everyone at Hogwarts who knew about her accident knew about Kaiba and Sakura being together. Many girls kept their disappointment mercifully silent, while others weren't so lenient.

"Why of all girls in this school would Kaiba pick her?"

"There's nothing that alluring about her, except her odd hair and eye color, but even that's more freakish than attractive."

"You think she's using a love potion or something?"

"Probably, I wouldn't put anything past that part-demon."

"Or maybe Seto's just toying around with her?"

Sakura endured comments like this for several days (along with detentions for giving various students black-eyes and broken noses and receiving a few herself) as October gave way to November. One day, sick of the comments she kept overhearing and not in the mood for another night of helping Filch clean the dungeons or that sort of thing, Sakura decided to walk down to the kitchen. She needed to get away from everyone and possibly have a nice hot chocolate to help get her thinking straight once more.

After going down six floors, down the marble staircase into the entrance hall, into the passageway the Hufflepuffs came to meals through, and she found herself in corridor whose walls were covered in paintings of food. Walking over to the one of a fruit bowl, she tickled the giant green pear and it became a green door. Her clawed hand grasped the door handle and she stepped inside.

"Would you like some tea, Miss Yasha?" a house elf with green eyes the size of tennis balls asked her as she pulled up a stool and sat down at end of one of the long tables in the center of the room.

"A hot chocolate please, Dobby," she answered as she stretched out her legs beneath the woodwork so her knees wouldn't be as high as her shoulders (the stool was way too small for her). Letting out a troubled groan, she laid her head on the wooden surface. "I hope Seto's realized why I wanted to keep this relationship under wraps by now," she muttered to herself.

"Here's your hot chocolate, miss." There was a soft _clunk_ as a glass tankard was placed next to her on the table.

Sakura lifted her head and took the steaming glass in her hands. The heated edges of the goblet warmed her chilly fingers. "Thank you so much," she said, and after mixing the cinnamon topped whipped cream with the cocoa, she took a sip. A gentle sigh escaped her as the soothing chocolate heat slid down her throat. She reached into her robes and pulled out a quill, bottle of ink, and her notebook. Then, after flipping to a page that was folded over slightly, she began writing where she had left of before she left the Gryffindor common room.

Writing, her private reality escape route; no one knew what she wrote in the leather-bound book. It wasn't a diary; it was something deeper with more meaning to her than any diary would ever have. Within its bindings was a world that she had created only for herself, to be shared with no one until the proper time. She hadn't even let Britts or Lara read it; not like they'd be able to anyway, the pages were full of her sloppy writing and countless scribbles and blotches from her messy proofreading.

"I thought I'd find you here," said a cheerful voice.

Sakura immediately found herself ripped from her story and facing one of her best friends. "Britts, what are you doing here?"

"I was just about to ask you the same question," the golden-blonde replied, pulling up another short stool and sat next to Sakura.

"Things are too distracting in the common room right now; everyone was being noisy and I was about to burst a blood vessel from all the comments I've been getting all this time from those sluts that also have the hots for Seto."

"They're not all sluts; quit stereotyping."

"Fine, a great deal of them are." The albino took a heavy swig of her hot chocolate in an attempt to drown her aggravation.

"Don't get so worked up about this; it will pass. Remember in fourth year Rita Skeeter wrote an article about Harry and Hermione being in a love triangle with Victor Krum? Everyone was talking about it. But in a month it all died down."

"Somehow I don't think this will die down in just a month. And Snape already made me do three hundred pushups and five hundred crunches for breaking Malfloy's nose two Saturdays ago. My abs and forearms still pain me. I've spent several nights with Filch mopping floors and such. And Professor McGonagall threatened to take me out of Quidditch practice for another detention if I get in trouble again."

"You deserved that workout he made you do and you know it. Snape's right, Sakura, you need to have more control over your temper."

"Easier said than done, Britts."

"Oh, and Lara and Harry wanted me to remind you that there's Quidditch tonight. Be there at seven o'clock sharp and don't forget or be late!"

"Okay, I'll be there." Sakura suddenly felt a tugging at her sleeve.

"Excuse me, misses," said a house elf with large blue eyes. "We need you two to leave so we can set the tables for dinner."

"Okay," Sakura got up and collected her things then followed Britts out the door.

"Great job tonight, everyone," Harry told the team that night after practice. "Now go back on up to the Tower and get some sleep. Make sure you eat a light lunch before the game and dress warm; it may get a bit chilly since we'll be playing in the late afternoon."

"And we intend to win the Cup this year just like last year, right Harry?" Ron asked ecstatically.

"Right, Ron." The Gryffindor keeper and seeker exchanged high-fives.

"That is as long as Ron doesn't let the other team score like he did nearly all of last year," Lara commented nonchalantly as her and Sakura put their beaters bats away.

Sakura struck her friend lightly between the shoulder blades. "Don't say that you'll jinx the poor guy." Out of the corner of her eye she saw Ronpale and hisears go red.

"Just stating a fact," Lara said defensively as she rubbed where her friend had hit.

"Stop the clucking, you two, you sound like some of our old hens back home," one of the team's new chasers, Ginny Weasly, said. (Since Harry came back Gryffindor team, she had decided to try being a Chaser and she had ended up being pretty good at it. Though, she was still training to be a better seeker.)

-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-

"Good afternoon, everyone! Welcome to the first Quidditch game of the season. Today's match is... GRYFFINDOR VERSUS SLYTHERIN!" sounded the voice of Ravenclaw student Cassandra Malay over the megaphone the next morning. Since Lee Jordan, former commentator, had graduated last year with the Weasly twins, she took the job.

There was a deafening roar as the stands broke out in boisterous applause. Decked in green and scarlet, it appeared that the whole student body turned up to see the match.

"Now for the Slytherin Serpents, I give you: URQUHART, FROSCOE, CUNNINGHAM, RICHO, CRABBE, GOYLE, AND MALFLOY!" **(A/N: Yes, in this fic, Malfloy doesn't skip out on the match.)**

An undistinguishable mixture of cheers and hisses erupted from the crowd as the green-robed Slytherins marched to the center of the Quidditch field.

"And now the Gryffindor Lions: WEASLY, WEASLY, THOMAS (Dean Thomas was filling in for Katie), CASSY, CAROLE, YASHA, AND POTTER!"

Madam Hooch, this game's referee, walked out onto the field with a large reddish trunk as the two teams lined up. Malfloy and Harry shook hands.

"Ready to lose, Potter?" Malfloy jeered in a voice so low that the hawk-like referee couldn't hear; a wide smirk plastered on his pale face.

"You're the one who's going to lose, Malfloy."

"Now I want no foul play in this game, got it?" Madam Hooch ordered sternly as the two captains took their places with their comrades. She released the bludgers and the golden snitch, then picked up a red, soccer-sized ball and threw it into the air.

Sakura felt the familiar rush of adrenalin pounding in her veins as she kicked off from the ground. Her scarlet robes and any loose pieces of hair that had escaped from her braid billowed behind her as her feet left the ground far behind.

"And Ginny Weasly has the quaffle. She's heading for one of the goal posts. Will she make it?"

Out of the corner of her eye, Sakura saw Goyle launch a Bludger at the red-headed girl. She dived, her blood pounding in her ears as she sped towards Ron's little sister. "DUCK GINNY!" she shouted. _BAM!_ Her bat struck the Bludger and sent it towards the keeper, just in time for Ginny score the first goal of the game.

"Hey Yasha!"

The albino turned. Malfloy was hovering over her. "What do you want?" she demanded, flying away with him following behind her.

"Oh nothing, it's just in my searching for the snitch, I got a good look at the audience in the stands."

"And what does that have to do with me?" She did several zigzags in the air in an attempt to lose him, nearly letting go of her broom because her turns were so sharp; anything to get away from that cocky hauteur of Malfloy's.

"If you'd stop flying away, I'll tell you,"

"Well quite frankly, I don't care," A Slytherin Chaser was streaming towards the goalposts. Sakura zoomed towards a Bludger that was passing and gave it a good hard smack, sending it right after the Chaser. He dropped the Quaffle but, unfortunately, another Slytherin Chaser caught it.

"Damn," the albino muttered.

"Watch your language, Yasha," Malfloy chastised, now flying in line with her. Anyway as I was saying, before you so rudely flew off. It looks as if your Prince Charming hasn't shown up to watch you play."

"CHASER MICHAEL FROSCOE HAS THE QUAFFLE. HE'S HEADING TOWARDS THE GOAL POSTS... OH, STOPPED BY A BLUDGER FROM LARA CAROLE. THAT'S REALLY TOO BAD."

"Last I checked Seto and I were none of your business, Malfloy. Now quit being a huge thorn in my side and get back to searching for your precious snitch or the only way you'll catch it is if it flies into those loose lips of yours." Without another word, Sakura flew off. _That baka chikushoume (stupid son-of-a-bitch), why does he care so much about Seto and I anyway?_ Her attention turned back to the game just in time to see Slytherin score.

The game continued with Slytherin eventually earning sixty points with Gryffindor matching them point for point. Suddenly Harry pulled into a dive with Draco Malfloy right behind him.

Sakura's ear twitched as she heard the unmistakable _crack_ of a bat hitting a Bludger. She turned and saw a Bludger streaming straight for Harry. Without hesitating, Sakura zoomed inn their direction. _Oh spam it; I don't think I can get there in time,_

Then from out of nowhere Lara swooped up from the other side of the seekers and hit the Bludger.

Having changed direction, the Bludger was now heading to Sakura. Adjusting her grip on her broom, she rolled under it just as the Bludger reached her place.

Harry was now just inches from the snitch, only a little more and he could catch it. He inched forward on his broomstick a bit more, but just as his fingers were about to close around it, Malfloy rammed into him and they both went rolling on the ground, broomsticks and all.

After catching his breath, Harry noticed something was in his hands, a round, walnut-sized something. He opened his fingers and saw the Golden snitch.

"HARRY POTTER HAS CAUGHT THE SNITCH! GRYFFINDOR WINS! FINAL SCORE: SLYTHERIN 60, GRYFFINDOR 210! I REPEAT: HARRY POTTER HAS CAUGHT THE SNITCH! FINAL SCORE: SLYTHERIN 60, GRYFFINDOR 210!"

Sakura landed then ran over to Lara and flung an arm around her shoulders. "Spectacular Bludger-batting, my kaonajimi (friend); we couldn't have won this game without ya! I was hoping you would hit that Bludger towards Malfloy, but this is so much better!"

The two girls ran over to Harry and gave him their thanks.

"Great game you guys!" Ryou said as he, Britts, Hermione Yugi, Mokuba, and Kaiba came over to them.

"That was almost better than Duel Monsters," Yugi remarked, giving Ron and Harry high fives.

"But not quite," Kaiba commented, putting his arms around his girlfriend.

"Come on, you guys. Seamus said there's a party in the common room," Dean yelled.

-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-

**Anaya's Creator:** Reviews are appreciated.


	10. The Christmas Complex

**Kaiba: **We have one review today.

**Zuko's 1 and Only:**

That's exactly what I had in mind...

**Anaya's Creator:** I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh, Inu-Yasha, or Harry Potter.

Chapter 10:_ The Christmas Complex_

Sakura looked out at the black night sky lit up by a radiant quarter moon, gazing at the millions of stars that winked down at her. When she had finished showering, Mokuba begged her to let him take a ride on her broomstick. Unable to refuse his adorable puppy-dog pout, she'd said yes. After letting him do a few laps around the stadium, she put her broom away, and then headed up to the common room for the party Dean had told the team about. However, while she was there, she'd seen Ron ferociously snogging Lavender in one of the armchairs. Resisting the urge to vomit, she'd gone up to her dormitory with an irresistible thirst to get some fresh air. Sure she and Seto had done the same thing a few times, but Ron and Lavender were going at each other's mouths where everyone could see them. Seto and she, on the other hand, had always did that sort of thing in private, normally in an abandoned classroom or early in the morning when the common room was empty.

Looking down at the grounds, she saw a figure shrowded in darkness walking out to the Quidditch field. _Who'd be going there at this time of night?_ she thought. Snatching her wand and pocketing it, she left her dorm.

Taking great care to avoid Filch and the Aurors patrolling the corridors, she snuck outside, but not without having a few close calls.

Praying no one could see her, she made her way across the dew-frosted grounds to the shadowed stadium. As she entered it, she saw one tall solitary figure standing in the middle of it, half of his features camouflaged in shadow but the other half lit up by the light of the moon. A small smile came to her face as she realized who it was.

"Not in the mood for a party tonight too, Seto?" she asked, walking up to him.

The brunette male turned towards her, his face not showing if he was alarmed by her sudden presence. "Not particularly,"

"Seeing Ron and that other girl was a specific turn off, wasn't it?"

"Not quite," Seto ran his hand along her cheek, his eyes locked with hers, silently suggesting something to her. Understanding what he wanted, Sakura rose to the balls of her feet and gave him a full kiss on the lips which he gladly returned. Her claws roughly buried into his hair as he wrapped his arms about her waist.

A soft moan escaped Kaiba as his girlfriend made the kiss rougher and more passionate. Hungry for the taste of her mouth, he ran his tongue across her lips. To his pleasure, they parted and his tongueslid inside her mouth. One of his hands ran up her back to her neck and he gently ran his thumb along her jawbone.

After a few moments, the demon-girl broke away, earning a loud groan of protest from Seto as he tried to pull her back to him. A playful sparkle danced in her red irises as she resisted. "Ever ridden a broomstick before?" she inquired.

"That would be a no,"

A coy smile came to Sakura's lips, exposing her fangs. "Wait here," she ran out of his arms to where the brooms were kept, got hers, and ran back out.

"See this, Seto? This is a flying broomstick. They're made only for Quidditch and travel. No sweeping," She handed it to him so he could get a better look at it.

He looked over the broom. He couldn't see many fine details because it was dark out, except for the light of the moon and the stars, but near the handle he could make out _Nimbus 2000_ engraved on it.

"As you can see mine's a Nimbus 2000. Had it ever since my second year and hasn't ever failed me yet. Of course, Harry's got Firebolt which is much faster; he flies like one two." Kaiba handed the broom back to her without comment. "You wanna go for a ride?" she asked.

"Uhh... no thank you,"

"Oh come on,"

"I don't think so,"

"And why not?"

"Because I need to check on my company."

"Oh, Seto, you can go without looking in on your company for one night. Live life while you can and take a ride with me," she removed her hat, tilted her head to one side, and looked at him imploringly.

_Oh great, the puppy dog pout,_ Kaiba thought. He had seen it enough on his brother on Christmas and now his girlfriend was gonna stare him down with it. Giving up, he let out a sigh and said, "Okay, I'll take a ride with you."

"Great," Sakura mounted the broom and motioned for him to get on behind her.

"I feel so stupid right now; I can't believe I'm doing this," he muttered to himself as he got on.

"Stop whining, you'll get over it. Now wrap your arms around me."

Kaiba obeyed. As he leaned against her, he could smell the milk and honey shampoo she had used in her hair and his lips had a sudden urge to kiss her neck.

"Hey, quit smelling my hair and listen up," Sakura ordered. "You have to move with me on this. When I lean forward, you lean forward. When I lean back you do the same, got it?"

"Sure,"

"Okay, hold onto me until I tell you otherwise and don't try anything funny. This is my first time with a passenger that's my size and I would really like it if neither of us ended up in the hospital wing. That would arouse awkward questions. Now when I say three, kick off from the ground with me. One... two... three,"

The sky rushed to meet the couple as they lifted off the ground. This ride certainly wasn't at all like his other trips to the skies. His heart thundered and his throat ran dry as Sakura directed the broom into swooping semi-circles and hairpin angles. Then he noticed they had begun a steady climb upwards. "Sakura, mitsukai (angel), what are you doing?"

"Taking you on the thrill ride of your life,"

"I don't think I'm going to like this..."

The broomstick leveled out and began a slow decline. Kaiba felt the blood in his veins rush to his ears as he and Sakura plummeted faster and faster towards the ground. His grip tightened around his girlfriend's middle and he closed his eyes, waiting for them to crash, but it never came. They had leveled out.

"Seto," Sakura croaked. "Can't breathe... loosen grip," The tight hold on her waist eased and she took a few steadying breaths. "So... having fun?" she inquired as they hovered a few feet above the ground.

"Next time warn me before you do another death-defying dive like that," he chastised as they drifted over the keeper's pitch.

"But you didn't answer my question."

"Fine, yes." Suddenly one of Kaiba's feet got caught on something and he was pulled off the broom, taking Sakura with him broom and all.

Sakura's broom left her hand as the two of them went rolling on the dew sprinkled ground. By the time they had stopped, she was on top of the C.E.O., straddling his hips. Noticing their position, she felt her face burn with embarrassment and she got off of him. "Well... uh, it's getting late so we'd better get back to the castle. She moved to go fetch her broomstick, but Kaiba grabbed her just above her wrist.

"No, let's stay out here." His hand trailed up her arm to her shoulder and pulled her back down to him.

-8-Dream-8-

_The moon shone brightly within the Pharaoh's royal garden as myriads of stars lit up the midnight sky. Trees and assorted plants cast spidery shadows on a young woman as she silently walked along the deserted path. _

_Unbeknownst to her, a cloaked figure was watching her from behind a fig tree. He felt his heart began to beat faster he gazed on his demon lover; she was as breathtaking as ever. Yearning to get a better view of her, he stepped out into the tree's shadow so he could get a better view of her. Suddenly, there was a loud _snap_. He looked down at the ground and saw that he had stepped on a fallen twig. _

_The girl turned and seeing he was caught, the figure stepped out from the shadows. "You came again, Sanura, my angel," he said.  
A smile came to the girl's face and she ran into his arms. One of his arms wrapped around her waist as the other lifted her face up to his until their lips met. After a few blissful seconds, she pulled away and her hands reached up to his hood, but before she could remove it, he caught her hands and held them tenderly in his._

"_Yes, my Sanura, it's time. We've been meeting like this for a while now and its past time you knew who I am." He let go of her hands and slowly lifted back his hood. He expected her to back away from him, horrified that she had been in love with the man she served, one of the high priests. Such a relationship was forbidden by Egyptian law. Instead, the demon girl reached up to his face and placed her hand on his cheek._

-Why didn't you tell me?- _she asked in his mind as she gazed into his sapphire eyes. Since Sanura had been placed as his servant, he had been using his Millennium Rod to help her speak to him telepathically since she couldn't speak normally._

_He stared at her, dumbfounded. _

I knew who you were from the start. I may be mute, but I'm not stupid!

_A soft smile curled onto his lips, she had a point. He should have known she would figure it out. In the time she had been serving him, he found out that she was unexpectedly clever. He tenderly ran his hand along the side of her face and brought her lips to his once more._

-8-End Dream-8-

Seto Kaiba's eyes quickly snapped open, his heart pounding softly in his chest. _Another dream... in ancient Egypt... with that girl, _he thought.He sat up, turned, and saw Sakura sleeping peacefully on her side next to him, some white strands of hair falling over her face. A true smile came to his lips as he brushed a few of them back into place. His hand then traveled down across her face, pausing at her lips for a moment. He could still feel the kiss he and the girl in his dream had shared and Sakura was an exact replica of her, except Sakura could talk and her hair wasn't in braids. _She and I were lovers in that dream. Perhaps... no way, all that nonsense Yami and Ishizu spout out about ancient Egypt is nothing but that: nonsense. Our relationship has nothing todo with what supposedly happened in the past._

Sakura squirmed a little and her eyes fluttered open. "Good morning. Is there a reason why you're touching my lips?" she asked.

Kaiba said nothing, retracting his hand as she sat up.

"We're still in the Quidditch stadium? Did we fall asleep out here?" she asked groggily as she looked around at where they were, stretching a little.

"Yeah,"

The albino looked at her watch. "It's quarter till five... Holy shit, Professor Snape is gonna kill me!" She got up from the ground, quickly ran over to her broomstick, put it away, and sprinted up to the castle. As she departed, he couldn't fight a twinge of jealousy forming in his heart.

"You're late," Professor Snape declared when she reached the empty classroom where they trained each morning.

"Yes, I know. For once in my life I overslept."

"Drop and give me one hundred fifty on each side. You oversleep on the weekends, not on schooldays when you have training."

A loud groan reverberated from the demon-girl's throat, but she muttered, "Yes sir," then dropped to the floor and did the one-handed push-ups anyway. The last thing she wanted was for her sensei to make it three hundred for not following orders. **(1)**

-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-

At the beginning of December, snow covered the grounds of Hogwarts and the feeling of Christmas was in the air. The halls had been decorated with garlands of holly and evergreen, along with the occasional mistletoe. Gigantic Christmas trees stood in the Great Hall, adorned with real gleaming fairy lights and strings of silvery, translucent bubbles.

That Monday, Professor McGonagall made an announcement in Transfiguration. "The headmaster knows that many of you students are troubled about the torment our world is going through at this time. Thus, he has decided to hold a Christmas dance for fourth years and up."

"But why?" objected a fellow sixth year, Dean Thomas.

"The headmaster wants to remind you that in these dark times there can still be joy and celebration. It shall be held on the twentieth and will be a masquerade ball. You may bring a younger student if you wish. Please wear your dress robes. Now, if you will all turn your attention to the mirrors on your desk, start working on changing the color of your eyebrows."

Soon Professor McGonagall came around to find out who was staying over the holidays.

"So, what are you guys doing over Christmas?" Sakura asked, one day when she, Kaiba, Mokuba, Ryou, and Yugi were hanging out in the guys' dorms.

"Well, Ryou and I were planning on going back to Japan," Yugi answered.

"Same here," Kaiba grunted as he typed away at his laptop. "Mokuba wants to catch up on his video games and I can see how my company's running in person."

"Do you guys really have to go?" Sakura complained. "It's so much fun here at Christmas. No classes, you can have snowball fights, go sledding, learn more secrets of the castle, you name it."

"Take the chick's advice, Seto; you don't need to come back to Japan your company's doing just fine."

"Ya!" Sakura jumped back as the face of an aqua-haired teen with blue eyes suddenly appeared on the screen and landed on the floor with a loud _THUMP!_ "Ow," she grumbled as she got back up. There was a loud _snap_ as her back cracked.

"Hey, Noa, long time no see," Yugi greeted, coming over to join the party.

"Noa, don't do that, you scared the heck out of my brother's girlfriend," Mokuba scolded. "Hey," he grumbled as Sakura hit him lightly on the arm.

"I wasn't scared, I was just awkwardly surprised," the albino said defensively. "Who is this kid anyways?"

"Watch who you're calling 'kid', missy! I'm older than Seto!" Noa spat.

"Really? Good for you, 'cause I really don't care."

"Yugi, is this that boy who trapped you, Kaiba, Mokuba and the rest of your friends in cyberspace?" Ryou asked.

"Yep, that's Noa Kaiba alright."

"Kaiba?" Sakura inquired. "You mean there's another one? Seto, I thought it was only you and Mokuba."

"Well, he's the real son of Gozaburo," Kaiba explained. "He was in an accident and his mind was uploaded into a computer mainframe."

"Ah," Sakura let out, still completely clueless. She looked at her watch. "Well, look at the time. I really gotta run. The girls, Harry, Ron, and I had planned to go see Hagrid today. So, it was nice meeting you Noa and I'll see you all later." With that she turned on her heel and left the dormitory.

"That girl's pretty cute, Seto. She's definitely a keeper," Noa commented. "Watch out or I may try to steal her from you."

"Don't even think about it," Kaiba warned.

"Oh, and I heard you guys talking about your plans for Christmas. Why don't you bring your girlfriend to Japan over the holidays?"

"He's got a point, Seto," Mokuba said.

"Hmm, that my not be such a bad idea," Kaiba murmured.

Later that day, he and Sakura were talking in a dusty corner of the library.

"Sure, I'd love to visit Japan over the holidays," Sakura said after Seto asked her if she wanted to come back with him for Christmas, her huge smile exposing her fangs. "I'm certain my uncle can survive this one holiday season without me."

"Great,"

"Would I be staying with you or do I have to kip in a hotel for two weeks?"

"You'd be at my mansion, of course; we have plenty of room."

"Cool, I'll go ask Uncle about it now." She threw her arms around Seto's neck and gave him a quick kiss then ran off to Dumbledore's office.

"Well, that was easy," Kaiba sighed, leaning against the bookcase behind him.

Unfortunately, neither of them had noticed a pair of jealous, baby-blue eyes staring at them from between a gap in the books.

In the days that passed, all that could be heard in the corridors was female chatter about the upcoming dance. Girls were chatting about dresses and the guys they wanted to ask to the dance. It reminded Harry, Ron, Hermione, Britts, Lara, and Sakura of the Yule Ball during the Triwizard Tournament in their fourth year.

"I am definitely not going this year," Harry mumbled that afternoon when he, Sakura, and Seto went to the library during a free period. Hermione had gone with them, but was currently looking for a book.

"I can see why," Sakura said. "Britts and I spent more time talking than partying in the Great Hall. And to be frank, it got very boring after a while."

"You don't like parties I take it," Seto observed.

"Not really, plus I'm a terrible dancer," Sakura said. "Anyone remember what the properties of Re'em **(2) **blood are?"

"Look it up," her boyfriend told her irritably.

"I would if I remembered the blasted page number,"

"It's on pages 294-95," Harry informed the frustrated demoness. He found that liked hanging around with Kaiba and Sakura. Even though the two were together, they weren't all over each other every chance they got, not at all the way Ron and Lavender were. "I'll be right back; I gotta go look something up." He got out of his chair and left.

When he was out of earshot, Kaiba leaned towards Sakura and muttered, "Are you still having your morning lessons with Snape?"

"Of course—" but her boyfriend suddenly cut her off before she could say more.

"What! How can you, Sakura?"

"Excuse me,"

"After all the stuff Harry's told us about him, how can you still trust him?" A furious growl was evident in the dragon's voice.

"My uncle happens to trust Snape and that's good enough for me."

"Sakura, your uncle is an old senile optimist. You told me that Death Eaters once came after the Shikon Jewel. It's obvious that Snape is on their side and you're still giving him the perfect opportunity to harm you, take the Jewel, and make it look like an accident."

"Seto, I have been having lessons with Snape ever since my first year. If he wanted to hurt me or steal the Jewel, he would have done it already."

"He's just waiting until the right time."

"No he's not, Seto; stop being so suspicious."

"Why do you insist on searching for the good in him when it's clearly not there?"

At this, Sakura suddenly slammed her book shut and shoved it in her bag along with her homework. "I found the good in you, Seto, think of that." Then slinging her backpack over her shoulder, she left.

The C.E.O. snarled irritably. True, she had found the good in him, but that was different. They had been forced to work together and he hadn't been working for some magical nutcase who wanted to take control of the Wizarding world. In a few hours she'd be over it and back in his arms.

But he was wrong, Sakura didn't speak to him the rest of the day. Sure she acknowledged his presence, but it was simply with a curt nod or slight glance. Okay, maybe he had been a bit harsh by insulting the headmaster, but still he was right.

"What's with the silent game between you and Kaiba, Sakura?" Britts asked late that evening when they were preparing to go to bed.

"He just said something that got me really pissed off," the albino answered with a loud yawn.

"Are you waiting for him to apologize for it or something?" Lara asked, biting back a laugh.

"To be honest, I don't really know if I'm waiting for anything," she answered.

"What did he say?" Hermione asked as she stroked her cat, Crookshanks.

"He insulted Dumbledore and insisted that Snape is a Death Eater."

"Well, that's nothing to get worked up over. Plus, Snape is acting like a Death Eater. He keeps trying to help Malfloy with whatever he's doing," Britts reminded her.

"That is the stupidest thing to be mad at him over, Sakura," Lara scolded, giving her demon friend a thump on the head.

"You're lucky I don't feel like retaliating tonight, Lara. Or else you'd be out cold for the next few days," Sakura retorted, getting in bed. "I'll talk to Seto in the morning." She pulled the bed hangings around her and snuggled under the covers with Stitch curling up next to her.

"Stupid," she heard Stitch say.

"Oh shut-up," she murmured and then after listening to the sound of everyone else getting into bed she felt her eyes grow heavy and knew no more.

Later that night, Sakura awoke to a loud rapping on the window. "What the hell?" she muttered. Grumbling irritably, groggy teen walked over to the window and saw a white-ish shape fluttering just beyond the glass. _Who sends an owl at this time of night? _she wondered.

There was the scratch of a latch being undone and a large owl flew into the room. With sleep clouding her eyes, Sakura couldn't tell what kind of owl it was so she fumbled with the letter tied around its ankle. Once freed of its message, the bird left through the window. Too tired to open the rolled up paper in her hand, the girl simply dropped the letter onto her nightstand and promptly fell back asleep.

The next morning Sakura dressed and did her hair as she normally did, she was about to leave when she heard, "Letter." She turned and saw Stitch pointing at the rolled up parchment near her clock.

"Oh yeah," she whispered. _I completely forgot about that letter I got last night._ She looked at the scroll saw her name on it and untied the leather strap. As she unrolled the parchment a red rose fell into her lap. Carefully, she lifted the delicate flower to her face and inhaled its scent, letting the soft pedals brush against her skin. Her hand ran down the stem and found that all the thorns had been removed from it. _I wonder if Seto sent this. He can be so sweet when no one's looking._

A soft chuckle fell from her lips as the memory faded and her attention turned to the note.

_Sakura Yasha,  
__Oh, your eyes as red as wine,  
__Your hair white and sheen  
__It's maddening to see you  
__With someone else but me_

_My demon beauty,  
__Has he said your splendor glows  
__Like the rays of dawn?  
__Has he told you he loves you?  
__Has he told you? 'Cause I do._

-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-

**(1)** For those of you that didn't figure this out last chapter, Sakura has demon strength like Inu-Yasha since she is, after all, part demon.

**(2)** For more information, see Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, p. 36

**Anaya's Creator: **Here's an extra long chapter for Demon Witch. Now REVIEW!


	11. More Relatives!

**Anaya's Creator:** Why is today Thursday? Why can't it be Friday!

**Kaiba:** Here are the reviews:

**Adele S:**

Of course I reposted this after it got deleted. As the saying goes, if at first you don't succeed try, try again. Glad you like it.

**Zuko's 1 and Only:**

Trust me that happens...

**Anaya's Creator:** I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh, Inu-Yasha, or Harry Potter.

Chapter 11: _More Relatives?_

Sakura dropped the letter. Seto hadn't written it; he couldn't have. The script was completely different from his, which was smaller and less embellished. Plus, Seto would have signed his name and since when did he write tanka **(1)** poetry or question what he had told her. But if he didn't write it, who did? Who was watching her and Seto so closely? The very thought sent shivers down her spine. In an attempt to get it off her mind, she shoved the letter in a drawer, making a mental note to show it to Seto later and then burn it, and threw the rose out the window as far as she could throw.

Strangely, she didn't see Kaiba that morning when she came back from her lessons with Snape. He wasn't even at breakfast. The first time she saw him that morning was in Potions so at the end of class, she walked up to him and put a hand on his arm.

Seto turned and saw Sakura standing beside him. He tried to say something, but she put her fingers to his lips.

"Before you say anything," she told him. "Let me say I'm sorry I let what you said get to me. It was really stupid. I shouldn't have overreacted and ignored you for the rest of the day."

He removed her hand and held it in his. "No matter, I admit it was crude of me to insult Professor Dumbledore like that, knowing he was the man that adopted you. I would have acted even worse than you if someone had talked that way about Mokuba."

"What would you have done?"

"Probably took revenge by defeating you in a duel."

"You mean you would try to. I've been pretty close to winning a few times. Who knows? Next time I might beat you. So am I forgiven for my moment of idiocy?"

"Of course,"

"And I forgive you for the comment about my uncle; you're allowed to be a moron. And you had a point; he is becoming a bit senile. He keeps going out for drinks at Hogsmeade; it's really starting to worry me."

"And when you return to your dormitory today, there should be something waiting for you. Happy Valentine's Day, love." The C.E.O. picked up his bag then left the room.

"Wait a minute, what do you mean? Get back here!" she demanded, chasing after him.

That evening, when Sakura walked into her dormitory to get ready for the masquerade, she found a mess on her bed. Befuddled, she walked over and leafed through the ripped up parchment, torn apart flowers, string, and cardboard until she found a (thankfully) untouched envelope with Seto's handwriting on it. _This must have been the something he'd told me about,_ she thought. With a quick swipe of a claw, the envelope came open and she took out the message inside. After reading through it, she discovered that Seto had tried to send her roses and a box of Honeyduke's Chocolate, but obviously it had been intercepted, and she had a hunch by who. She shuffled through the jumble on her bed and found one flower still intact and some hairs, no doubt belonging to the culprit. One glance at their deep blue hue told her that her hunch had been correct. "Stitch, you are going to be in big trouble the next time I see you," she muttered. Rolling her eyes, she cleaned up her bed with a flick of her wand and pulled out her dress robes from inside the trunk at the end of her bed.

When she was done preparing, the top of her hair was pulled up in a bun adorned with the rose while the rest flowed gently down her back. (She had decided to ditch her hat for the night.) Her robes were golden-brown with peasant sleeves that exposed her shoulders, a skirt that went to her ankles, and a bodice that hugged her chest and the simple mask she had in her hand was pure white.

Lara was in stormy grey with her hair back in a bun with black chopsticks, and a black, grey, and white mask that made her look like an owl. Sakura felt bad for all the unlucky boys that would fall for her charm and be lured into a game of cards which, through a mixture of distracting flirtation and Carole family card tricks, would surely leave them broke.

Britts was dressed in rich plum with a black mask and cat ears on a headband that held her hair away from her freckled face. With some encouragement from Lara, she finally got the nerve to tell Ryou she liked him and the two of them were going together.

Hermione wasn't going at all, probably because Lavender (decked in her namesake) was going to be going with her precious _Won-won_ a.k.a. Ron Weasly.

On the way down to the Great Hall, Seto leaned towards Sakura's ears and asked, "Did you enjoy the roses and chocolate I sent you?" He was dressed in black robes with a thin black mask around his eyes.

"Actually, I didn't get a chance to."

Seto gave her a questioning look.

"Stitch got to them before I did. All that was left was a ripped up box and this one flower," she said. "Next time if you have something for me, just kind of, give it to me in person. It makes things so much easier."

A beautiful crescent moon and bright stars adorned the ceiling in the Great Hall providing light. Couples were dancing to the Weird Sisters while others got food and drinks from a large buffet table and sat at small circular wooden tables with greenandred checked tablecloths and small lamps that had a gentle red glow and tiny wreaths of holly wrapped around them.

After eating a bit, and several unsuccessful minutes of trying to dance together (usually Sakura'shulking feetwould end up stepping on Kaiba's unfortunate toes), the couple decided to just go outside and look at the stars. Occasionally, one of them would point out a constellation or one of the planets.

"My father and I used to do this all the time when I was a kid," she told Seto, leaning against him. "Especially when we would go to the feudal world, then we didn't have to worry about the lights in the city." An owl suddenly swooped across the moon, making her recall the owl she had gotten the previous night. A slight frown came to her face.

Seeing this, Seto inquired, "Is everything alright, mitsuki?"

Sakura looked away from him. "There's something you should see," she murmured. She reached into her robes, pulled out the piece of parchment, and handed it to him.

Seto quickly skimmed it over and glared at her accusingly. "Who sent this to you? When did you get this?" he demanded, not trying to hide his jealously.

"I don't know; does it look like there's signature? It came late last night. I was woken up by a loud rapping sound by the window."

"What about the owl? Do you remember what it looked like?"

"I was so groggy, I don't really remember; and even if I did, there would probably be several of that kind of owl in the Owlery. And not every student has one; it could have been one of the school owls for all I know."

"Why did you show this to me?"

"Because I thought you should know that someone's watching us."

Without warning, Seto suddenly trapped Sakura in his arms and bit into her neck, hard, creating a bright red mark. The female shrieked, grabbing his biceps and pushed him away from her. "Seto Kaiba, get a hold of yourself!" she exclaimed, shaking him roughly. "What the hell was that for?"

"Maybe now that admirer of yours will get the hint and see that you're mine."

"Did you have to be that rough when you did that?" Her hand went to where he had sucked on her and winced as she touched the hickey._ I'm flattered that he got so jealous, but was that really necessary?_ she asked herself.

Seeing the pain he had caused in his overwhelming jealousy, Seto removed her hand and began kissing the skin around it in an attempt to soothe her. Then he told her something he hadn't said to another person except his brother in a long time. "I'm sorry," he whispered into her neck. "I don't know what came over me, but it won't happen again."

Sakura wrapped her arms around him. "You have every right to be jealous; and like I said earlier, you're allowed to be a moron too sometimes."

He laughed (yes, actually laughed) into her neck then kissed her tenderly on the lips. "Oh, and you were right. You are a horrible dancer," he muttered as he broke away.

"Hey!" Sakura retorted, giving him a playful shove.

"What? You admitted it yourself yesterday. And you must have stepped on my feet at least fifteen times while we were in there."

"But you're not supposed to agree when I degrade myself."

"But it's more fun that way."

His girlfriend growled contemptuously. "Grr, I could just kill you sometimes!"

"Or maybe I should just teach you to dance. That way if I take you to a company party I won't come back with broken toes."

Sakura raised an eyebrow. "I thought you weren't a party person?"

"It looks good for the company. I have to go."

"Partying with stuffed shirts, that sounds fun." Her voice lowered disdainfully as she spoke.

"You have no idea," Kaiba grabbed her hand. "So you ready to go back inside and have your first lesson?"

"Are you sure? Don't you think I've put your feet through any more torture tonight?"

"I'll survive."

He took her other hand and led her back inside. The Weird Sisters had started playing a slow tune so Seto put her hands on his shoulders, his arms around her waist, and began moving with the rhythm. Several times, Sakura would look down at her feet, but he would bring her head back up and force her to look at him. "We're barely moving, you don't need to look at your feet and its better if you actually feel the rhythm."

Colored robes danced around them like a rainbow sea and masks of all kinds could be seen. And out of the corner of her eye, Sakura caught a glimpse of Dumbledore, dressed in orange with a mask like a phoenix, smiling at them.

-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-

"So, where would you like to go first, Sakura?" Kaiba asked as he and his girlfriend sat down in the back of his spacious limousine.

It was Christmas Eve, the first day of winter break the two of them were riding through the slushy streets of Domino while Mokuba spent some time at a friend's house.

"Home sounds good," she replied, running her fingers down Stitch's back as he lay curled up on her lap.

"Jack, take us to the Sunset Shrine," Seto ordered.

"But sir, that temple has been burnt down for nearly six years," the driver, Jack, objected.

"Did I ask for your opinions? No, just take us there. Ow," he muttered as Sakura punched him in the bicep. "What was that for?"

"Quit being a spoiled son-of-a-bitch," she scolded, rolling her eyes. "Your stepfather's dead, don't go around acting like him."

"How do you know what he was like?"

"One by how you act, two he came to our family shrine a few times."

"How come?"

"He wanted to buy our land. I was seven at the time...

-8-Flashback-8-

"_Catch Sakura!" said a thirteen year old, fox-demon._

_Sakura jumped up and tried to catch the green sphere the red-headed fox-demon had thrown at her, but she was short enough to miss it as it passed just above her fingertips. "I'll go get it, Shippo," she told him as she landed back on her feet and ran after the ball._

_She followed the ball to the entrance of the shrine and down the steps to where a black limo had pulled up. A man with graying hair, dressed in a red business suit stepped out of the vehicle and the ball stopped at his feet. "Excuse me sir, could you hand me my ball please?" Sakura asked, bowing respectfully to the stranger._

_The old man picked up the ball and held it in his large hands, examining it. "Better be careful with your toys, little one," he cautioned. "Or someone may break them."_

_Sakura tilted her head in confusion. Why did this unfamiliar person tell her such a thing? "Um, please give me back my ball," she requested. What she didn't see was unmistakable cruelty hiding behind this man's apathetic eyes._

"_Of course," but instead of giving the ball back, the guest poked a hole it, thenlet it drop tothe ground as air escaped from it. "There, you can have it now."_

_Sakura's jaw dropped. This man, he didn't just... no... The demon-child slowly picked up the deflated scrap of rubber, sadness clouding her vision._

"_What's going on out here?" asked a female voice._

_Recognizing the voice, Sakura turned around and ran up the stairs. "Momma," she cried, throwing her arms around the woman dressed in priestess' garb who had appeared at the top of the stairs. _

"_Sakura-honey, what happened?" Kagome cooed, kneeling down to her distressed daughter. _

"_My ball," she held up the flimsy remains of the toy that had once brought her joy and pointed to the stranger at the bottom of the steps._

"_I see," Kagome stood up and faced the visitor. "Who do you think you are? Destroying a child's toy like that?" she demanded as she walked down towards the car._

"_I am Gozaburo Kaiba, madam. I am here to see the owners of the Sunset Shrine," he answered._

"_I would be one of them. Why are you here?"_

"_I have a proposition for you and your husband. Perhaps we could discuss this inside."_

"_Very well, follow me," Kagome coldly lead the man up the stairs and into the business part of their home. _

-8-End Flashback-8-

"So you think my stepfather was an arrogant son-of-a-bitch because he broke your precious ball?" Seto asked, smirking at the childishness of his girlfriend.

"That's part of it," Sakura admitted. "But he also wanted my parents to sell him our home. My mother and father argued with him about selling it for what seemed like hours. He was determined to make our temple another one of his weapon building laboratories, but Mom and Dad refused no matter how much money was offered. After being turned down several times, he tried forcing us out using some of his new guns, but my father made scrap metal out of them with one swipe of his Tetseiga. And we were never bothered by him again. I'll never forgive him, but I'll never loathe him as much as Lucius Malfloy."

In no time at all, they had reached the burnt down shrine. Slowly, Sakura got out of the car and stared at what was once her home. It was the same as the day she had left it, ash-covered and barren. The fires that had been set by the Death Eaters had destroyed nearly everything. All that remained were the weather-worn cement steps, the two fox statues at the entrance of the temple, and whatever lay hidden beneath the mounds of snow.

"You can leave," Kaiba told the driver. "I don't know how long this'll take."

Memories of old times flickered across the girl's mind as she climbed the steps. She could easily see her and Shippo playing in front of where her house once stood. After wandering over to where the Bone-Eater's Well had been, Sakura stood on the edge of the large hole remained where the shack once stood, staring down at the snow-covered well in the center of it. Warm arms circled her from behind and she leaned into her boyfriend's body, inhaling his scent. "Mmm," she murmured, closing her eyes. But they snapped open a moment later when she got an idea. "Let's try to get to the feudal world," she said, turning around and looking at him.

"And how, pray tell, do we do that?" he asked. "It's impossible to travel to another time."

Sakura escaped his embrace and jumped from the edge then ran over to the well. "That's what you think. All we do is jump in here and we'll be transported to the feudal era."

"Really,"

"Yep, unless..."

"Unless what?" Kaiba inquired, joining her in the crater.

"Unless it won't let me through..." Her voice grew quiet. "Like last time..."

"Last time?"

Ignoring his question, Sakura brushed off some of the snow, swung her legs over the side of the well, and sat on the edge, waiting for Seto to do the same.

_I feel so ridiculous,_ Kaiba thought as he copied his girlfriend. He felt her put her arm around his lower back and they jumped. Blackness surrounded them and there was a strange sensation of floating beneath them. Moments later, they reached the bottom of the well.

"Okay, how do we know that worked?" Kaiba asked, doubt in his voice.

"Easy, we climb out and have a look around." Sakura leaped up, trying to grab the ledge, but it was just out of reach and she landed back on the ground. "Damn, I'm still too short." She pulled out her wand, pointed it at herself, muttered _"Wingardium Leviosa,"_ and levitated herself out of the well. Her face lit up as she looked at her surroundings.

Gone were the ashes of her burnt home. Gone were the towering skyscrapers and crowded streets of modern Domino. Instead, all around her were large trees with heaps of snow piled on their branches. With an ecstatic giggle, the demon-girl turned back to the well and yelled, "Seto, come on up. You've got to see this." But in her excitement, Sakura didn't hear a low growling sound coming from the woods around her.

"What is it?"

"We did it. We've gone back in time. We're in the feudal era."

"Now you've really lost it, Sakura. How could we have gone back in time? It's impossible."

"Come up, look around, and then tell me that." She extended her arm and Kaiba grabbed hold.

"Sakura, what is that thing?" Kaiba inquired a few moments later as he pulled himself out of the well.

The albino turned and saw that they had been cornered by a brown and white weasel that had grown to several times its normal size. Its flaming red eyes were pouring into theirs and large plops of saliva were dripping from its mouth which was filled with many small, saw-like teeth. Sakura swallowed. "A weasel demon, no doubt, and it certainly looks hungry." Reaching into her winter parka, she pulled out her wand and moved in front of Kaiba.

Thinking the pair would make an easy meal, the overgrown rodent charged at Sakura and Kaiba.

"_Protego,"_ Sakura said. The demon slammed into an invisible shield and ricocheted off of it and landed about ten feet away from them.

Kaiba stepped forward, wand extended, but his girlfriend swung her arm in his way. "Wait a minute," she cautioned. "Maybe it's learned its lesson."

The weasel demon shook its head a little and slowly got to its feet. Growling, it bared its teeth maliciously at the couple then launched another attack.

"May I?" Kaiba offered, casting a sideways glance at Sakura.

"Be my guest,"

Seto murmured something and several sparks flew from his wand and exploded on contact with the beast causing welts to spring up on its paws.

"A stinging hex?"

"Yep,"

Letting out howls of anguish, the demon retreated, wincing as its paws touched the ground.

"So, still think we're in modern-day Japan?" Sakura challenged, giving Kaiba an I-told-you-so look.

"So, now that we're in the feudal world, what do we do?" Seto asked, changing the subject.

"Follow me, I know some people that live in the village nearby... At least, it should be nearby."

Unbeknownst to the pair, a small greenish imp with large yellow eyes was watching them. "It appears that the daughter of milord's brother, Inu-Yasha, has returned to these lands. I must tell Lord Sesshō-maru." He turned from the scene and ran off into a deeper part of the woods.

Soon the imp came to a twenty-four year old woman with long black hair gathering herbs. "What is it, Jacken?" she asked as the imp approached her.

"This does not concern you, Rin. Where is Lord Sesshō-maru?"

"If it concerns Lord Sesshō-maru, it concerns us all, Jacken. Tell me what has happened," the maiden insisted.

"Take me to him and you will find out,"

The girl turned. "Come with me,"

"So my niece has returned," Lord Sesshō-maru mused when Jacken had finished explaining. Unlike his brother, he was a full-demon. His hair was bright white and on his forehead was a royal blue crescent moon. "Perhaps I should pay her a little visit of my own..."

After walking through the trees for a few minutes, the two came across two of the villagers. "Excellent, my son, now try hitting that tree," ordered a woman with long black hair with a boomerang as tall as she was strapped to her back. A few paces away from her was a small boy of about six reeling in a scythe blade on a chain.

"Aunt Sango!" Sakura shouted, recognizing the woman.

The woman turned her hand on her weapon. "Outsiders, why do you pass this way? And why do you wear such strange clothing?" she demanded.

Sakura removed her hat, "Aunt Sango, it's me, Sakura."

Sango studied the girl for a moment. She looked so familiar, so much like Inu-Yasha. Could it be? "Sakura Yasha?"

Sakura nodded as Sango ran towards her. "Oh gods, I never thought I'd see you again," the grown woman half-sobbed as she through her arms around her. "It's been so long. Where's Kagome and your father?"

Sakura broke away and answered, "Mom and Dad died, Aunt Sango, a long time ago."

The black-haired woman's face saddened for a moment then she called to the young boy who was with her. "Haku, come over here. There's someone I want you to meet." She turned back to Sakura. "I don't know if you'll remember Haku, he was only an infant when you two last met."

After being reintroduced to Haku, Sakura introduced Kaiba and the four of them walked to the shrine and had tea with Sango's husband, Miroku, and the new young girl that had taken the role of priestess after Lady Kaede's death. The group had just settled down for lunch when the new priestess stood up.

"A demon approaches, a powerful one," she said.

Sakura stood up, not noticing that she had left her wand on the ground. "I'll go to greet it then," She turned to leave, but she felt someone grab her arm.

"You aren't going alone," he told her, taking his wand out of a pocket in his blue trench coat **(A/N: Think of his** **Duelist Kingdom getup)**.

"Very well, just be aware, Seto, that not all demons will be as easy to fight off as the weasel demon we saw earlier." The two of them walked out of the temple just in time to see a very tall figure flying towards them on a dark cloud.

"Long time no see, niece," said a deep, familiar voice.

"Another relative?" Kaiba asked.

"I have lots of uncles, what can I say?" Sakura explained bluntly. "It's good to see you too, Uncle Sesshō-maru," she greeted as the cloud came to rest in front of them.

"I see you've taken on the very image of your father," Lord Sesshō-maro said as the cloud disappeared beneath his feet. He drew out one of the two swords at his hip and pointed it at her. "Let's see if you're a better fighter."

-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-

(1) Tanka- Japanese poetry similar to Hikou, but different. I don't remember how the pattern goes right now.

**Anaya's Creator: **REVIEW PLEASE!


	12. Exposed Truth

**Anaya's Creator:** TGIF! And I have a German project I should be working on...

**Kaiba:** Here is the one, solitary review:

**Zuko's 1 and Only:**

Sorry, but there will be wands; I never said I was a people pleaser. Thanks for reviewing nearly every chapter I put up.

**Anaya's Creator:** I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh, Inu-Yasha, or Harry Potter.

Chapter 12: _Exposed Truth_

"Let me see; are you more of a challenge than your father? Hmm, I wonder..." Lord Sesshō-maru murmured as he drew back his blade. He cast a cold stare at Seto and Sakura then swung his blade.

"Seto, get out of the way!" Sakura shouted, giving him a powerful shove. Her hand plunged inside of her parka to grab her wand, but it wasn't there. _Oh shit,_ she thought, mentally kicking herself. _I left it in the temple..._ But before she could dodge it, the force from her uncle's strike hit her and she slammed backwards into a nearby shed. Her body exploded in pain as it collapsed on top of her. She tried to get up, but she was only able to move some of the rubble off of her.

"What are you waiting for, niece?" Lord Sessho-maro growled as he approached the collapsed shed. "Draw your weapon and fight me."

"If I had a weapon I would have drawn it by now," she retorted. Wincing because of her wounds, she tried to get up once more, but once again she was without success. "Why are you doing this anyways? We're blood."

"I want to see how much you've improved as a fighter. Now fight me, Sakura!" The male demon sliced his sword through the air again.

"_Protego!" _Seto shouted and some of the attack hit an invisible barrier that appeared in front of the destroyed shack. Some of it bounced off while the rest traveled across the unseen shield and sliced trees in their path into firewood.

Lord Sesshō-maru avoided the rebound easily and turned to the wizard that had cast the spell. "You foolish mortal, stay out of matters that don't concern you!" He drew back his sword to strike again, but he stopped when a large blue fire appeared in front of him, blocking him from getting at Seto.

"Hold it, hold it, what's all the violence about?" said a voice as the fire that had materialized as the flames died down a fox-demon appeared.

Taking advantage of the momentary distraction, Kaiba ran over to Sakura. "Are you alright?" he asked as he helped her out of the rubble and slung her arm over his shoulders so she could stand. She didn't answer, but he could sense a familiar, hellish aura forming around her. Her winter coat was no more and what clothing was still on her body was badly torn and becoming stained with blood. Slowly, her head lifted and he saw black marks on her cheeks. "Sakura?" he said, shaking her a little. "Sakura, mitsuki (angel), no; don't..."

At this statement, Lord Sesshō-maru and the fox demon turned. Seto's words seemed meaningless to Sakura as she roughly pushed him away from her. Her dark pupils stared menacingly at the two male demons in the pools of her blood red eyes, and then she charged.

_Hmm, she has become a true demon now,_ Sesshō-maru thought, dodging his niece's hasty attack effortlessly. _She is so much more easily pushed to lose control than her father ever was; so, the enchantment hasn't faded yet..._

_She has transformed already?_ the fox demon wondered as he jumped out of the way of the rabid demoness. _Poor girl, I have to find a way to make her change back to her hanyou** (1)** form before she kills us all._ "Lord Sesshō-maru," he shouted. "We have to knock her out. If you get behind her, I'll distract her."

"And why should I follow your orders?"

"Because, otherwise, she'll destroy the both of us or die trying."

"I'll knock her out, but I don't need your help," the dog demon retorted and ran behind Sakura. He was about to hit her on the head with the hilt of his sword, but she turned around and took a swipe at him with her lengthened claws.

Taken aback, Lord Sesshō-maru drew back, but not in time to prevent Sakura from giving him a good scratch across one of his cheeks.

"Will you accept my help now?" the fox demon asked, watching as a thin stream of crimson thread down Sesshō-maru's cheek.

Grudgingly, he agreed.

The fox demon smiled. "Fox Fire!" he shouted and a great fire surrounded Sakura on all sides.

The demon girl let out a frustrated growl, bearing her fangs at the flames that were as tall as she was. She took a deep breath, but instantly started coughing. Weakening because of the heat and lack of oxygen, she fell to her knees.

Apathy in his eyes, Lord Sesshō-maru jumped over the blazes, knocked Sakura out, hoisted her over one of his shoulders, and leapt out.

"What's going on out here?" Miroku had come running out of the temple with Sango, Haku, and the priestess behind him.

The fox demon raised an arm and the inferno disappeared. "Perhaps we could discuss this over a nice cup of tea?" he suggested, clapping his hands together and walking in the direction of the temple.

A while later, Sakura stirred. As her eyes opened, she found herself staring at the wooden roof of a shelter. To her left, a curtain had been erected to give her some privacy and a pink kimono had been draped over her. She moved the material off of her and saw that her clothes had been removed and her injuries had been bandaged up. Not seeing her clothes, she put the kimono on and fastened it with a sash that had been lying next to her.

"So, Lord Sesshō-maru, why did you attack Sakura?" asked a familiar voice.

Curious, Sakura stepped out from behind the curtain and she saw everyone gathered around the hearth in the center of the room. "I know I would certainly like to know the answer to that question," she said, kneeling between Lord Sesshō-maru and Kaiba. After she sat down, she felt his hand enclose around hers.

"How are you feeling?" he whispered in one of her dog-ears, concern in his voice.

Sakura had to bite back a moan as the C.E.O.'s hot breath made the highly sensitive hairs on her dog-ears prickle. "Okay, but I'll feel better once I get some answers," she answered softly, giving his hand gentle squeeze. Then she felt a thin stick of wood get pressed into her hand. She looked down and saw her wand now in her hand.

"Next time, don't forget it!" Seto growled.

"Before I answer any of _your_ questions, _I'd_ like to know who you are," Lord Sesshō-maru demanded viciously.

"Lord Sesshō-maru, I'm offended. Has it truly been so long that you would have forgotten me?"

Sakura studied the fox-demon for a few moments. He looked about twenty-six years old and had reddish orange hair that was held back by an aqua ribbon. And he seemed oddly familiar. "Shippo?" she asked.

The fox-demon's head turned, "You got it, Sakura, long time no see. And who is this young man you brought with you? Your lover?"

Sakura's face went blood red. "Seto Kaiba," the albino answered simply, looking at the floor and ignoring the fox demon's second question.

"Shippo, eh?" Lord Sesshō-maru mused. "Ah yes, the little fox kitsune who was always trailing after my brother and his dear Kagome, I remember now."

Shippo clapped his hands together. "Wonderful, now that we all know each other, I have a question: What's all this fighting about? Did I walk in on a family squabble or something of the sort?"

"Sakura, let me see your right arm," the dog demon ordered, extending his hand. Confusion in her blood red eyes, his niece complied. He lifted up the sleeve of the kimono and undid some of the bandage on her upper arm.

"Hey! I just finished dressing that wound..." the new priestess objected.

"Then you will redress it after I am done," Lord Sesshō-maru told her coldly, casting the priestess a killing stare which silenced her. He continued to unwrap the strips of cloth until the tan marking on Sakura's arm was revealed. "This is why I came," he said, pointing to it.

Sango gasped. "The curse mark," she whispered.

"Curse mark?" Seto asked, he turned to Sakura. "You told me this was a birthmark."

"That's what we thought too," Miroku said. "That is, until her first full moon when she transformed into a full demon and never became human."

"So you convert into a full demon because of some enchantment? You said because of my part-demon blood," Kaiba asserted, giving her a reproachful glare.

Sakura felt herself buckle his accusing gaze, "I know and I'm sorry, Seto." She looked at him straight in the eye. "I know lying to you was wrong, there is no excuse I can give for it, except that I was afraid of what your reaction might be. Being a part-demon has cost me very many friends, and I didn't want to lose anymore. If I changed due to my part-demon blood, I would become human once a month, not demon. I am cursed."

"How? When? Why were you cursed?"

"It happened sixteen years ago," Shippo answered. "Not long after Kagome, Sakura's mom, married Inu-Yasha and became pregnant with Sakura, we fought Naraku for the last time..."

-8-Flashback-8-

_Kagome, Inu-Yasha, Sango, Miroku, and Kyoga (head of the wolf-demon clan) had finally cornered Naraku. He was backed against a wall, bleeding everywhere and was too weak to do anything to save himself. Inu-Yasha was standing in front of him, the Tetseiga at the ready and the now-complete Shikon Jewel clenched in his hand. "Well, Naraku, it appears you have no where left to run, you slime," he growled. "You fooled Kikyo and me into killing each other."_

"_Cursed the male offspring of my family," Miroku added._

"_Desecrated my village and kinsmen," Sango put in._

"_Slaughtered my comrades," Kyoga tacked on._

"_And for this you shall pay with your own life," Kagome finished. She drew her bow and set an arrow to it. "Everyone clear out of the way."_

_Everyone stepped back, Kagome fired her arrow, and her Sacred Arrow pierced the very heart of the demon that had caused them all so much misery._

"_Curse you, Kikyo's reincarnation," Naraku hissed as his body broke apart. "And I will, I use the last of my magic to hex the child in your womb. As long as she is what she was born she will transform into a full-fledged demon once every month and never become human."_

-8-End Flashback-8-

"After his defeat, it was decided that Inu-Yasha and Kagome would go back to the present to raise you and the Jewel of Four Souls would go with them. The plan was that on Sakura's eighteenth birthday, the Sacred Jewel would be passed on to her and fate would then decide itself."

"Fate would then decide itself?" Kaiba asked, bewildered.

"At that time either Sakura or her father would use the Shikon Jewel and become human, then it would fade from existence forever," Miroku said shortly.

"Once again, I must apologize for lying to you, Seto," Sakura apologized as she and Seto walked back to the Bone Eater's Well to return to their own time. She still had on the pink kimono and hoped no one would notice anything when they got back to their own time. She felt Seto tuck something into her hair. Confused, she reached to it and pulled a thorn-less red rose out of her hair.

"The crimson brings out your gorgeous eyes," he told her as he continued walking; his hands plunged deep into his pockets and his shoulders hunched forward slightly.

One night, a few days later, Seto came home from work late and saw Sakura wrapped in a blanket on the floor of his study in front of the fire place with a mug of hot chocolate beside her. In her hands was To Kill a Mockingbird, a book from his library that she seemed to enjoy.

"Welcome home," she greeted, looking up from the book as he entered the room. Her eyes were slightly and her voice echoed her exhaustion.

"It's nearly midnight, love. What are you doing up?" he inquired as he sat down beside her, reclining his back against one of his huge leather chairs.

"Is it a crime to wait for you to come back from work?" she retorted as she sat up still wrapped in the blanket.

"No, it's just that... never mind. Did you and Mokuba have a good time today?"

Sakura yawned briefly before answering. "We spent lots of time at the arcade, winning those dopey prizes and eating all the pizza and ice cream we could stuff down our throats. It was very enjoyable."

"Good. Has he gone to bed?"

"We watched some anime movies, pigged out on popcorn, and he was out like an extinguishing spell at ten thirty." Her gaze wandered to the fire place and lingered there for a few moments, her tired eyes anxiously staring into the flames.

"Is anything troubling you, pet?" he asked, running his hand along her face and to make her face him.

Sakura looked away, "Nothing's wrong, Seto," she lied.

"You're lying to me," her boyfriend murmured. He went behind her, wrapped his arms around her, and trailed his lips along her neck, "Tell me the truth."

"Everything is bothering me;" she gushed. "Voldemort's running rampant in England and killing more day by day, all what Harry's telling us about Voldemort's past, my uncle's hand still being injured. Kami, what isn't going wrong in this world?"

Sakura let out a loud sigh and let her body mold against Seto's. Hungry for his electrifying touch, she turned around into his arms to face him and amorously kissing him as his hands ran over her thin t-shirt that barricaded her skin from his touch.

As the temperature of their bodies rose, Seto stopped caressing Sakura and removed his trench coat. Her fingers flew to his shirt and undid the first couple buttons as quickly as she could then unlatched herself from his mouth and kissed his exposed shoulders, collar bone, and chest.

Seto caught her chin and brought her back to his mouth, hastily pushing his tongue inside her sweet caverns. Caught up in the fervor of a tongue battle, the two of them fell backward onto the floor struggling against each other for dominance. His hands traveled to her hips and began pushing the shirt off her stomach. He broke their kiss abruptly and flipped her over onto her back, dragging his hand along her heated stomach.

Sakura let out a groan of approval and arched her lower back into his hand. "Seto, don't stop," she purred. Her body felt as if it was on fire and she didn't want it to end.

Seto moved downward and buried her face in her stomach, licking across it eagerly. His hand moved upwards until it was centimeters from her breasts when she grabbed his wrist and yanked him away. He stopped paying attention to her stomach and glared at her, an irritated growl escaping his throat.

"I don't think so," she whispered with a drained smile.

The male sighed. So, she was going to let him go only so far with her. That was fine with him; chasing after her was part of the fun. He crawled back up her body then laid on the floor beside her, his arms around her in a possessive hold.

The tired girl climbed on top of the male and lay down on his shoulder. Closing her eyes, she let the smell of the burning fire and the warmth of his arms, give her sleep. And for the first time in her life, she felt what it must have been like to be human.

Seto stared down at the woman in his arms. A few small bite marks were beginning to grow on her pale neck. One of his hands traveled to his own neck. Never, in all the times the two of them had made out, had she ever bitten into his neck. _I wonder why..._

When Sakura woke up the next morning, as she was brushing her hair after getting dressed, she noticed several bite marks and a hickey had formed on her neck overnight. _Oh great,_ she thought. _Now I have to go buy some cover-up or something. Curse you, Seto._

The Saturday before going back to Hogwarts, Seto took the day off from work and he and Sakura went into a spacious blank room with large windows letting in huge streams of sunshine, a smooth wooden floor, and a large stereo system.

"In all my exploring, I have never seen this room," she told him. "Why are we here?"

"Having for your first dancing lesson, what else?" he answered.

Kaiba took walked over to the stereo system and turned it on. A slow, melodic tune with a swaying one-two-three beat began to play. He walked to the middle of the room and he and Sakura stood facing each other. Kaiba put her right hand on his shoulder and held her left hand in his right. "The first dance I'm going to teach you is the waltz. I'll first teach it to you slow so that you can catch on quickly, then we'll try going faster. Just do the opposite of what I do."

After about twenty minutes of following his lead (and accidentally stepping on his toes a fair amount of times), Sakura was actually starting to get the hang of the waltz and found herself staring into his deep eyes more often instead of looking at her feet. "Who taught you how to dance?" she asked.

"My father," he answered. "And he had been taught by his father."

"I see. Did he and your mother go out dancing together a lot while they were alive?"

"Yes many times, and your parents?"

"I think my mom may have tried teaching my dad once, but it didn't seem to take. More often they would take me back to the feudal world with them and go out doing who knows what while I was left with Aunt Sango and Uncle Miroku."

"Did you ever do much with your other uncle, Sessho-marū?"

"Well, he and my father didn't get along very well; according to what my mother said, they would have gladly ripped out and eaten each other's entrails. Though the times I did see him, he didn't seem so bad; he was kind to me, despite his rather horrible impression over break. He hadn't seen me in a long time so he was trying to see how powerful I had become, I guess. Anyway, he would always bring me a nice present every birthday up until I came to England; otherwise though, he kept his distance. I really wish I'd spent more time with him."

-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-

**(1)** I believe this means part-demon, but it may mean half-demon. Sorry if I use this incorrectly.

**Anaya's Creator: **REVIEW STUPID PEOPLE OR I WON'T LIKE YOU NO MORE!

6


	13. The Abducted Tablets

**Anaya's Creator:** Sorry about the long wait. I had school work, editing, and such that I needed to do before updating again.

**Kaiba:** Don't you have a math test you should be studying for so you don't get a C again?

**Anaya's Creator: **(grumbles)

**Zuko's 1 and Only:**

Eventually...

**Arrathar:**

Thanks for reviewing again

**Onyx Rose:**

Yep, that admirer is still in the story. Feel free to boggle your brains out over it...

**Adele S:**

So I've been told. I've never gotten one though, never had a boyfriend.

**Kaiba: **What boy would want a girl like you, karate-kicking smart chick whosucks at math?

**Anaya's Creator:** (bonks him) I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh, Inu-Yasha, or Harry Potter.

Chapter 13: The Abducted Tablets

The few remaining days of winter break passed by in what seemed like seconds to those in the Kaiba mansion and in a matter of moments, it seemed, they were back to Hogwarts.

Seto Kaiba was leaning against the wall next to the statue of a griffin. Many minutes ago, Sakura had gone up the staircase hidden behind it to tell her adoptive uncle what had happened over winter break in Japan. _She's been up there forsome time,_ he thought._ What's taking her so long?_

Suddenly, the griffin came to life and jumped to one side as someone came down the moving staircase. It was Sakura with what looked like a newspaper clenched in her hand. "Sorry I took so long. Thanks for waiting," she said, kissing his neck.

Seto reached for the paper in her hand and unrolled it. "_The London Times_?" he asked. "This is muggle news. I thought wizards didn't read it."

"Uncle does, along with ours. He says it helps him keep an eye on Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters."

"So what caught his attention?"

"An odd break-in; I'll explain once we get with the others. Dumbledore says we have to find them all and bring them to his office. He needs to speak to us all."

"Someone broke into the London museum and took some huge tablets?" Ron asked.

It was late in the evening and Sakura, her two best friends, the Japanese students except for Mokuba, and Harry, Ron, and Hermione had gathered in Dumbledore's office. Apparently, someone had broken into the London Museumand stolen some really huge artifacts. Also, there was also no evidence of someone forcing his or her way in, which made the situation all the more suspicious.

"Yeah weird, eh?" Sakura replied. "And listen to this:

_Mysterious Artifacts from Ancient Egypt Stolen in a Puff of Smoke from London Museum_

_Last night while all wizard kind was asleep in their beds, one was not. He/she was at the London Museum, the target: huge untranslatable tablets from ancient Egypt brought to England by the Egyptian Historical Society representative, Ishizu Ishtar. "I am confused as to why someone would take these precious artifacts," she told a Daily Prophet reporter, disguised as a muggle. "No one has been able to translate what has been carved on the stone so they are truly of no use to anyone. And I don't see why they would bring anyone a large profit on the black market." _

_This reporter was also told that the perpetrator was caught on camera by a museum security tape. He/she killed the guards and as the security alarms sounded, disappeared with the artifacts in a puff of purple smoke. Ministry of Magic officials from the Department of Mysteries are on the scene as we speak._

"It was Lord Voldemort," Harry declared. "He must want to know what's on the tablets."

"Harry, he can't even read them so of what use are they?" Sakura asked.

"Wait, let's not jump to conclusions," Hermione objected. "We don't even really know what's on that tape. This article only gives us a vague idea of that. Maybe it wasn't a Death Eater."

"And what, pray tell, are the chances of that?" Lara asked sarcastically.

"But why steal the tablets to get the information?" Britts questioned. "Why not just go to the library? Or visit the museum during the day?"

"I don't think anyone knows enough about the Millennium Items to publish a book about them," Sakura pointed out. "Besides, if it was a Death Eater, I doubt they would know how to translate the stones on the spot. So they need to take the time to translate the hieroglyphics."

"We have to get a look at that tape," Bakura said, having appeared beside his hikari along with Yami.

"But how?" Ron asked.

"Ishizu knows us from Kaiba's tournament. Maybe we could send her an owl and she'd send it to us," Yugi suggested.

"Then we'd have the tape, but how would we view it? Muggle devices don't work inside Hogwarts," Ryou said.

"Except my laptop and cell phone," Seto reminded them.

Sakura snapped her fingers as an idea popped into her head. "Wait a minute, what about Noah?"

"What about him?" Kaiba inquired

"Who is 'Noah'?" Dumbledore asked, finally speaking up. During the whole conversation, he had basically sat back, thinking his own thoughts, and let the group of teens talk the situation out since the majority of them were planning to be Aurors when they left school and needed to get used to stuff like this.

"He's Seto's stepbrother," Sakura answered.

"Why wasn't he brought here? I thought there were only two Kaiba brothers,"

"Well, he's not really a person, per say. His mind kind of lives in a computer so, technically speaking, he's not really human or alive... I guess," his niece explained rather awkwardly. Feeling rather stupid, she turned to her boyfriend. "Could I have a little help clarifying here, please?"

The C.E.O. rolled his eyes, "You're horrible at explaining things," he murmured. He got out his computer and logged on. Soon a familiar pale face with green hair and blue eyes had appeared on the screen.

"Hey people, what'd I miss?" he greeted.

"Hello Noah, there's someone who would like to meet you," Sakura said.

Seto picked up his laptop, placed it on Dumbledore's desk, and turned it around so the old wizard could see the screen. "Noah, meet Professor Dumbledore, our headmaster and Sakura's uncle. Professor, meet Noah, my stepbrother."

"This is absolutely fascinating," Dumbledore exclaimed excitedly. "How is life in cyberspace?"

"_Boring_! I've been stuck in the virtual world for so long; I've run out of things to do. Though I do know a few good porn sites that..."

"Ah! My virgin ears!" Britts interrupted, slamming her hands over her ears. **(1)**

"_Anyways!"_ Sakura growled, turning the laptop back around and trying to get everyone back on track. "Noah, we need a favor. The London museum was broken into last night and we need to see that security tape. Can you hack into their system and e-mail the tape to us?"

"Can I? After hacking into the computer mainframe on Seto's blimp, a museum should be a piece of cake. I'm on it," and in a flash he disappeared.

"Professor, what happens if a Death Eater was behind this?" Hermione asked.

"First, we must find out if it was a Death Eater, then we take it from there," the headmaster answered.

"Okay, I got the tape, Seto," Noah's voice said. "It's loading up to your computer as we speak."

"Good," Kaiba grunted, and soon the media had finished loading. "Here we go," he murmured, clicking on the play button.

The room they were watching was silent and very dark, spare for a set of security lights that allowed them to make out two guards standing vigil over two very large, stone tablets. Suddenly a beam of bright green light lit up the screen and for a moment they couldn't see a thing. When it had faded, redish lights had begun to flash and a ear-piercing siren had filled the room. One of the guards was lying motionless on the ground and the other had his gun out.

"Who's there? Show yourself!" he demanded in a gruff voice. He wasn't very old, only in his mid-forties or so, with dark hair and a straight nose that curved up at the very tip. His shirt was light blue and didn't hide the obtrusive beer belly he had. Dark formal looking pants covered his thick legs.

Then another burst of light blinded them and he met the same fate as his partner.

"They were killed by the Aveda Kedavera curse," Sakura muttered. "There's no doubt of it. I can't think of any weapon in the muggle world that kills that causes that big of a lightshow and kills that silently."

"Because no weapon can do that," Seto told her. "My stepfather's corporation was up to date on all war technologies before I took over the company. No normal weapon could be that destructive and not make a sound."

Next, a hooded figure came on the screen, after silencing the alarms and passing over the guards and running towards the tablets. It stood in front of the two stones and for a little bit seemed to be pondering what to do. Thenthe personconjured puffs of purple colored smoke, engulfing the artifacts . When the haze had cleared, there was a loud cracking sound and the mysterious human had disappeared.

"That had to have been a Death Eater," Harry said. "There's no way a muggle could have done that, absolutely none."

"What do we do now, Professor?" Hermione asked.

"I will present this happening to our Minister of Magic, Rufus Scimgeour, but we must find out what is written on that tablet so we can figure out what information Lord Voldemort has gotten his hands on," Dumbledore explained.

Lara turned to Yugi and Ryou. "You guys mentioned that you know the woman who brought those slabshere. Did she ever tell you what was on them?"

"The one with the pictures that look like Kaiba and myself tells of the last great battle between us in ancient Egypt," Yami began.

Seto groaned, "Here we go again."

"And I'm not sure what the other one says; never got a chance to read it."

"If we zoomed in on the screen to get a better view other tablets, think you could decipher it?" Sakura inquired.

"Kaiba could," Bakura said shortly.

Seto clicked on the zoom button a few times, but as they got closer to the tablets, the image became more distorted.

"Okay, time for a new plan," Sakura sighed.

"Noah, hack back into the museum mainframe and see if you can get us into a camera closer to those tablets," Seto demanded.

"Always barking orders, aren't you, dear brother?" Noah spat mockingly. "Why don't you try saying _please_ for once in your life? It wouldn't kill you."

"Noah, we don't have time for this," Kaiba snarled back.

Sakura rolled her eyes. _Men,_ she thought exasperatedly. "And we don't have time for your stubborn belligerence."

Britts turned to Noah. "Noah, please stop bickering pointlessly with Kaiba and zoom in on those tablets."

Noah grinned. "Now that's much better. You could learn a few things from these guys, Seto." The aqua-haired teen disappeared and reappeared a few minutes later with a clearer and brighter view of the stones.

"Zoom in more on the left tablet," Kaiba requested.

Noah complied.

"A little bit more, it's almost readable... perfect." Seto stared at the screen for a while before he told them what was on the slabs. "This one tells about shadow magic being used to summon the actual monsters to life and how the sorcerers controlled them."

"But the only ones who can do that are the ones with Millennium Items, right?" Britts asked.

"We've never met anyone without one who could." Yami assured her.

"So even if Voldemort translates this, we only have to worry about him using the magic if he gets his hands on one of the Items," Hermione mused.

"Right," Bakura confirmed. "And even if he does, only ones with a connection to our past in Egypt can use their power; and I highly doubt that this dark lord fits that category."

Dumbledore pulled out his pocket watch and looked at the time. "Oh my goodness is it that late already?" he murmured. "Splendid work everyone, but for now, I would like you all to retire to the Gryffindor Tower and get some sleep. I will contact the minister about this in the morning and in the meantime, I'd like you all to attend to your normal day to day activities as you usually would.Harry, we'll have another one of those meetingstomorrow night, be here at eight o'clock. Good night, everyone."

Everyone nodded and began to leave the office.

As she left, Sakura turned back and saw the headmaster's head bowed forward to the floor as he shut his eyes and begin to slowly rub his temples. "Uncle, what's wrong?" she asked, worry visible on her face as she watched him.

"I'm alright, my dear, just go to bed," he told her, looking up

"Are you sure?" she insisted, walking over to him. Even though this man wasn't her real uncle, she had to admit that she had grown attached to him. After all, it was his roof she had been living under for the past six years.

"I'm fine, Sakura. I'll just go down to the kitchens and get myself a nice cup of tea."

"Do you want me to fetch it for you?"

"That would be lovely, now that you mention it." Dumbledore gave her a strained smile as she bowed to him and left his office. When she had gone, he walked over to his cabinet and pulled out a stone bowl with ancient writings carved around the edges. Inside it was a silvery substance that seemed like air turned to liquid. He placed it on his desk, sat in his chair, took out his wand, and lightly tapped the surface.

Instantly, the substance began to swirl and swirl inside its container until a picture of a lush green and sun-filled meadow formed in its depths. He leaned forward and allowed himself to become lost in the memory as it began to play itself out.

-8-Flashback-8-

_It was a bright, sunny day and he had decided to take Sakura around the grounds of Hogwarts before school started once again. She had only just turned eleven. They were in a field near their home outside of Hogwarts filled with overgrown grass and other assorted plants. He was walking with a large mahogany staff in hand and she was running around smiling and laughing, her then short braid gently hitting the back of her neck. Occasionally she would stop to roll in the grass and pieces of it would get in her white hair, but she didn't really seem to care. It was as if she had forgotten the grief brought on by her recent loss, but he knew that back then she still cried in her sleep, yearning to see her parents alive once more._

-8-End Flashback-8-

"I remember this day. It was a week before I was going to attend Hogwarts," said a voice from behind him.

Dumbledore turned and saw Sakura. He had been so engrossed in the scene unfolding before him that he had not noticed his niece appear behind him. "Indeed, it was."

"So should I go back and leave your tea on the desk?"

"That would be wonderful. Thank you, dear."

His niece smiled, to him bowed once more, and left him.

"And now you are a woman," he murmured as he gazed back at the eleven year old Sakura. He then got himself out of the memory and found himself back in his office.

There was a loud cry from the side of the room and a bird with vibrant orange and red plumage flew over and landed on the desk beside him.

"She grew up so fast, didn't she, Fawkes?" Dumbledore sighed as he stroked the phoenix's crown feathers. Quaking slightly, he reached for the steaming mug on the tray in front of him. _What are you plotting, Tom? _he pondered as he took a drink, but immediately spat it back out. "I think I burned my tongue," he remarked to no one in particular.

-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-

**(1)** This is a little tribute to my friend, Britts, whom this character is based on. This struck me as something she would say if we brought up something really dirty during a conversation. Love ya, Britts, my goddess of innocence incarnate!

**Anaya's Creator: **REVIEW STUPID PEOPLE OR I WON'T LIKE YOU NO MORE!


	14. Nameless chapter

**Anaya's Creator:** I'm mad, by the time I reached this point in my fic before it got deleted, it was over 100 reviews. Now, it's only 22.

**Darklady919:**

I'm glad you like it. Please review other chapters as well.

**Onyx Rose:**

Sorry, can't tell you. It'd be spoiling stuff.

**Zuko's 1and only:**

Onyx Rose likes Noah too.

**Kaiba: **Anaya's Creator doesn't own Yu-Gi-Oh, Inu-Yasha, or Harry Potter.

Chapter 14:

February rain pelted against the windows of the castle that next Saturday as sixth years conglomerated in the Great Hall for their first Apparition lesson. The house tables had disappeared and the ceiling was a mass of dark gloomy clouds swirling above them. Everyone lined up in front of their Head of House—a.k.a. Professors Snape, McGonagall, Flitwick, and Sprout and a small wizard who must have been the Apparition instructor from the Ministry. He was extremely odd looking, with pale eyelashes, thin hair, and a frail build that made it seem if you even just barely poked his clothing he would fall over. Sakura wondered if this was the effect of constant apparition on a human or simply you needed to be that freakishly thin if you ever wanted to vanish.

"I sure hope I don't look like that when I'm older," Britts murmured.

"Of course you won't Brit," Lara whispered back. "Your breasts will be hanging all the way to the floor by then."

"Lara, be serious!" Britts exclaimed, blushing with fury.

"Good morning everyone," he said when everyone was present and had been hushed up by the four teachers. "I am Wilkie Twycross and I shall be teaching you all Apparition for the next twelve weeks. My hope is that you will be prepared for your Apparition Tests at the end—"

"Malfloy, hush up and pay attention!" barked Professor McGonagall.

Nearly everyone's head turned. Draco flushed dull pink and stepped away from Crabbe with whom he seemed to have been arguing with in furious hushed whispers.

"At the end of that timeframe," Twycross continued, smoothly resuming his speech as if he had simply stooped to take a deep breath.

"As you know, due to complex enchantments and spells, it is impossible to Apparate or Disapparate within the castle grounds. Professor Dumbledore has kindly removed this protection from the Great Hall, but only for our hour long Saturday morning lessons. Now if you would all spread out so that you all have about five feet in front of you."

"Mortals are so amusing," Bakura murmured softly as he took over Ryou's mind so he could watch the show of hormonal teenagers scrambling to get a spot, running into each other, or ordering others to give up their places. "The directions were plain and simple: find a spot, make sure there's five feet in front of you, and stay there."

"But as always, humans make any situation more complicated than necessary," Britts concluded as she, Sakura, and Seto took places near him. Out of the corner of her eye she saw him smirk at her, raising an eyebrow.

"You're human too," he told her.

"No I'm not, I'm a goddess, just ask Sakura and Lara,"

"Yeah, she's a goddess alright," Lara said as she joined them. "No one could act as innocent as she does and be human."

"I wonder where Harry's got to," Yugi wondered out loud.

"He's going towards Malfloy," Seto answered, looking over the crowd. "Looks like he and Crabbe are arguing again."

"Who cares? It's their problem, not ours," Sakura said.

"Quiet!" the Heads of House shouted and silence swept through the hall once more.

"Thank you," said Twycross. "Now then..." With a wave of his wand, an old-fashioned wooden hoop appeared in front of each teen.

"The important this to remember about apparition is the three Ds," Twycross told them. "Destination, Determination, and Deliberation! The first step: Determination. You must focus on nothing except for where you're going. Now kindly concentrate on your hoop before you."

"I cannot believe this. He's treating us like damned two-year-olds," Sakura huffed as she stared at her hoop.

Britts gave her a stern look. "Stop whining," she mouthed.

"But he is,"

"The next step: focus your determination to occupy the visualized space. Let your yearning to enter it flow into every particle of your body, even your soul,"

Sakura made a face. _Old man, there is something seriously wrong with you, _she thought looking down at the plain circle. She looked around and saw Yugi staring into his hoop so intently his eyes looked like they could pop out at any moment. She could only just manage to swallow her laughter.

"Step three: When I give the command, turn, feeling your way through emptiness, moving with deliberation. One..."

Sakura's jaw dropped. _Apparate? Now?_ She glanced at her friends; they too seemed startled to be ordered to attempt Apparition so soon.

"—two—"

_My mind's gone blank,_ Sakura panicked. _What are we supposed to do again?_

"—THREE!"

The albino watched as her friends began to spin then a glazed look overcame them as they lost their balance and almost fell over. Seto suddenly reached out and put a hand on her shoulder to steady himself with.

"Having fun?" she asked.

"Not really,"

"You okay?"

"Fine, you?"

"Perfect, I just stood here, not doing anything because I forgot everything he said."

"Never mind, never mind," Twycross said, with an expression that said he hadn't expected anything better anyways. "Adjust your hoops, please, and back to your original positions..."

Sakura's second attempt was a little bit better than her first; she started spinning, like many other students, but, didn't go anywhere. The third was just the same. It wasn't until everyone's fourth try that anything interesting happened. There was a horrible screech of pain and everyone looked around to see Yugi with in his circle but an arm and a foot still back where he started. It was not a pretty sight.

The Heads of House swooped down on him; with a great bang and putt of purple smoke Yugi breathing hard and looking horrified but reunited with his missing body parts.

"Splinching, or the separation of random body parts," Twycross bluntly explained. "This is what happens when the mind is not sufficiently _determined_. You must focus completely and constantly on your _destination_, and move, without haste, but _deliberation_...thus."

Twycross stepped forward, turned gracefully with his arms outstretched, and vanished in a swirl of cloth, reappearing at the other end of the hall.

"Showoff," Kaiba muttered.

"Remember the three D's," he said, "and try again... one--two—three—"

About an hour later, Yugi's Splinching was still the most interesting thing that happened, though Twycross did not seem discouraged at all. Fastening the clasp of his cloak, he merely said, "Until next Saturday then, and remember the three Ds: _Destination, Determination, Deliberation._"

With a wave of his wand, the hoops departed and he walked out of the hall accompanied by Professor McGonagall.

"Flying is so much better," Sakura told Seto as the two of them walked out of the hall with the rest of their company.

"How did you guys do?" Ron asked as Harry came to join them. "On my last try I felt a sort of tingling in my feet.

"Maybe you're trainers are too small, Won-Won," Hermione taunted, smirking as she stalked past.

Sakura gave Kaiba an apologizing look and hurried after her. The group distinctly heard her say, "Hermione, that was uncalled for," before the two girls disappeared into the mass of black robes.

February soon gave way to March and the weather became extremely windy with lots of rain. And to everyone's let down, the next Hogsmeade visit had been canceled most likely thanks to the accident with Katie Bell that had happened on the trip before Christmas. More and more disappearances were reported in the _Daily Prophet _and most of them were relatives of students.

"FUCK LORD VOLDEMORT!" Lara shouted one day at the breakfast table when she found out that her aunt was now one of the missing. "I swear if that motherfucker isn't caught soon, I'm gonna take a leaf out of your father's book, Sakura, and strangle the shit out of Lord Voldemort, then rip out his fucking guts and put 'em in a bowl for our whole damned Wizarding World to see! That should be a suitable punishment for what he and his fucking Death Eater Assholes have …" Suddenly suds started pouring from her mouth.

"Wash out your mouth, young lady," Professor McGonagall said from behind her, tapping her middle back and causing the foam to cease. "I shall see you in my office tonight for detention, Miss Carole."

"Yes Professor," Lara answered weakly before running to the bathroom to rinse out her soapy mouth.

"You know, that doesn't sound like such a horrible idea. But first I'm gonna avenge my family by ripping off Lucius Malfloy's testicles, stabbing him several times, then let him bleed to death.

"Feeling sadist much?" Kaiba inquired.

"Yes,"

"Seto, Sakura, come quickly," Hermione exclaimed breathlessly as she found the two of them in the library.

"What is it, Hermione?" Sakura asked, accidentally letting go of the book she had been skimming through.

"Sakura, watch where you're dropping things!" Seto chastised as he caught the book just above his foot with a wordless levitation spell.

"Ron's in the hospital wing."

"What? Why?" the demon girl asked.

"We shouldn't discuss it here," Hermione gestured to the door and began walking towards it. Seto and Sakura grabbed their bags and followed her out and into a deserted classroom.

"He and Harry went to Professor Slughorn's office for a cure for a love potion," Hermione said as they got inside.

"Slughorn? The astronomy teacher? Since when is he good at potions?" Seto inquired.

"That's not important!" Hermione stressed angrily before continuing on with her tale. "The point is that they went there and after Ron was given the antidote he gave Ron and Harry some glasses of mead. Ron took a sip, started having a fit, Harry gave him a bezoar and now he's in the hospital wing."

"Why do I have a feeling Malfloy's behind this?" Sakura said.

Kaiba rolled his eyes. "Sakura, you're as bad as Harry. Why would Malfloy be behind this?"

"Hello! He's been acting not normal ever since school started. He's missed almost every Quidditch game except for the first match. Plus, he's been disappearing. Harry can't even find him on his map of Hogwarts. Don't tell me that's not suspicious."

"But what would be his motive for almost killing two other students?"

"Quidditch possibly, both the victims were on the Gryffindor team,"

"I don't think its Quidditch and I don't believe Malfloy would do something like this, but there's definitely a connection between the attacks," Hermione put in.

"They both could have been fatal attacks, but thanks to dumb luck the victims were spared," Kaiba said.

"And neither the poison nor necklace seemed to reach the person it was intended to destroy," Hermione added, "which makes the killer all the more dangerous because he or she obviously doesn't care who he harms on his way to his intended victim."

"But the big questions are who's doing this? Why? Who are they trying to kill? And what do they plan to accomplish by doing it?" Sakura asked.

That night, Ginny Weasly got to the common room just behind Harry and Hermione. "Harry! Wait!" she said, putting a hand on his shoulder.

Jerking from his thoughts, Harry jumped out of his chair by the fire, his wand at the ready.

Whoa! Easy! I'm not gonna hex you or nothing," she said, holding up her arms as if she were at gun point.

"Sorry Ginny, you just surprised me, that's all. I thought the common room was empty." He withdrew his wand and sat back down. "Shouldn't you be with Ron and the rest of your family?"

"Mum and Dad told me to get some sleep," as she sat in the chair next to him, her arms on the armrests. "Besides, I needed to talk to you about Quidditch anyways. It's Cormac McLaggen. He looked pretty smug when told me he'd seen the teachers taking Ron up to the Hospital wing earlier. And he implied that he would be substitute keeper for next week's match since it seemed to him that Ron might not be able to make it."

"Yeah, I guess he will be. He did do second best at the tryouts. I can't think of why he shouldn't."

"Why he shouldn't!" Ginny bellowed. This was so unlike her that Harry couldn't help flinching a little. "He thinks he's superior to everyone else on the team, even you. Not to mention he'll try to take over your position of captain."

"How do you figure?"

"He said that he had tons of strategies that would make our team better. Not that I'm not open to new plays and such, but you're the captain not him. And he needs to realize that."

"Don't worry, I'll talk to him about being keeper, and he will. Trust me," he assured her, putting a hand on hers. He gave her a sincere smile then went up to bed, the monster inside his chest purring contently.

The day of the Quidditch match, the whole team was waiting for Harry in the changing rooms.

"Where have you been?" Ginny demanded. The entire team was dressed already and ready to go. Sakura was drumming her nails against the lockers. At first, Harry couldn't tell if it was out of irritation or nervousness, but then he saw her annoyed glances at McLaggen and decided it was probably the former.

"I met Malfloy on the way. He was heading up to the castle with a couple of girlfriends."

"So?"

"So I was curious as to why he was up there while the rest of us were down here."

"Is that really of importance right now?"

"I'm not likely to find out, am I?" Harry seized his broomstick and they all headed out to the Quidditch pitch.

"Tricky conditions," McLaggen told the team. "Carole, Yasha, you both should fly out of the sun so they don't see you coming."

"You think I know that?" Sakura retorted irritably. She turned to Lara, "Do you want to hit a Bludger at his head or should I?"

Lara shook her head, not answering her friend's question. _This is going to be a long match..._ she thought.

-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-

**Anaya's Creator: **REVIEW STUPID PEOPLE OR I WON'T LIKE YOU NO MORE!


	15. Something Bad is Happening in Hogwarts

**Anaya's Creator: **(Busy listening to _Wicked_ soundtrack)

**Kaiba:** (rips off her headphones) Hello! Introduce the new chapter, you Broadway obsessed geek! I'm not introducing it for you again.

**Anaya's Creator:** I AM NOT A GEEK! (hits him on the head) Though I am obsessed with Broadway music. Here are the reviews:

**Nthn5:**

Hi cousin. Thanks for finally getting off the couch and reviewing.

**Arrathir:**

I don't really like Cho so much. She's kind of a slut (but a good character nonetheless).

**Onyx Rose:**

Don't worry. The ending of this won't be so stereotypical. I hated it too.

**Adele S:**

I don't like him that much either.

**Anaya's Creator**: I doesn't own Yu-Gi-Oh, Inu-Yasha, or Harry Potter.

Chapter 15: Something Bad is Happening in Hogwarts

Three... two... one, an ear-piercing whistle so sharp it made Sakura wince filled the air and her and her team kicked off the ground.

"And that's Smith of Hufflepuff with the Quaffle," said a dreamy voice, echoing over the field and particularly in Sakura's ear drums.

_I'd recognize that voice anywhere,_ Sakura thought. She looked over at the commentary's podium and saw a dirty-blonde haired Ravenclaw girl with a string of butter beer corks around her neck, Luna Lovegood. She had joined Dumbledore's Army last year, a club to learn and practice Defense Against the Dark Arts. Sakura was also in the club, and she had grown rather fond of the girl. Luna was an outcast and, like herself, was often made fun of.

"...now that big Hufflepuff player's got the Quaffle from Ginny Weasly, I can't remember his name, it's something like Bibble— no, Buggins---"

"It's Cadwaller!" Professor McGonagall exclaimed, loud enough that the magical megaphone caught her voice and the whole stadium heard it. Everyone in the crowd laughed, even Luna.

Sakura saw a Bludger racing towards her and hit it at Cadwaller who was about to score. It would have hit McLaggen since he had been so busy yelling at Ginny for letting the Quaffle out of her hands to see it coming but to her disappointment, he noticed in time and was able to save himself.

"Watch where you're pelting those Bludgers, half-breed, you could have hit me," he yelled.

"If you had been paying attention, you would have seen that I got Cadwaller to drop the Quaffle, chikushoume," she bellowed back.

Dean Thomas caught the Quaffle as it dropped from Cadwaller's hands and passed it to Dezmelza Cassy, who scored. Ginny scored not long afterward, but then Cadwaller scored twice making things even.

"Seventy-forty to Hufflepuff!" Professor McGonagall barked.

"Is it really?" Luna asked. She had been so distracted trying to avert the crowd's attention to oddly shaped clouds and pondering aloud the possibility that Zacharias Smith was suffering from "Loser's Lurgy" since he had been unable to keep hold of the Quaffle for longer than a minute, she had forgotten all about the score. "Oh look! The Gryffindor keeper's grabbed hold of one of the beater's bats.

Sakura turned around as saw McLaggen demonstrating to Lara on how to hit a Bludger toward Cadwaller, who was approaching the goalposts once again.

"McLaggen, give Lara back her bat and get back to the goalposts!" she heard Harry shout just as McLaggen swung at the Bludger. Unfortunately, it was Harry he hit.

"Hey, I think he's coming to, guys," Yugi said as Harry began to open his eyes.

Harry struggled to open his eyes and raised his head, which was strangely heavy. He was surrounded by Lara, Sakura, Britts, Seto, Yugi, and Ryou. "Where am I?"

"The hospital wing, dummy, where else would you be?" Sakura told him.

"Madam Pomfrey said that Bludger cracked your skull open. She's gonna keep you overnight so you don't overexert yourself," Britts said.

"But I can't stay here overnight, I gotta find McLaggen and kill him," Harry objected.

"I think that counts as overexertion," Seto said.

"No need, Sakura and I took care of him," Lara informed him, jabbing her thumb over her shoulder. The other students parted and Harry saw McLaggen lying on one of the infirmary beds, still out cold. "I clunked him on the skull when I got my bat back and Sakura took a punch at his nose. Sure we got detentions for it, but it was worth it."

"How much did we lose by?" Harry asked.

Sakura winced. "The final score was three hundred and twenty to sixty."

Harry felt his heart sink. That was the third time **(1) **the Gryffindor team had lost by three hundred points because of him getting an injury.

A familiar voice snapped him out of his misery. "I hope Luna commentates from now on... _Loser's Lurgy..._" chortled a voice from the next bed over.

Harry looked over and saw Ron who was shaking with laughter.

"These guys told me you only arrived just in time for the match," Ron said when his snorts had subsided. "How come? You left here early enough."

"I found Malfloy sneaking off with some girls. Wish I'd have followed him though, the match was a disaster."

"You can't have skipped out on the match Harry, you're the captain. Plus, if you had, you still would have ended up in this hospital bed," Lara scolded.

"Thanks Lara, that really helps," Harry grumbled. "I just want to know what he's up to."

"We know. Like hell, we know," she spat bitterly then she left the room.

Silence filled the hospital wing as Harry's other friends watched her go. "I'll go after her," Sakura said.In the dormitories, she caught up with Lara. "You okay, L? You seemed quite ticked off when we left the hospital wing."

"It's nothing, Sakura," her friend answered as she sat on her bed.

"Nothing, my fist. What's yanking your chain?" Sakura sat town next to her friend.

"Harry. He's just so obsessed with Voldemort and Malfloy that he's loosing sight of the important things."

"It's only expected that he would want revenge on Voldemort for the death of his family and Sirius Black. And his constant hunting of Malfloy, I think, for him is simply because of their hatred of each other and a matter of pride. Demons are the same way, sworn enemies will hunt each other until one of them is dead; it's the way nature works."

"I just hope this doesn't drive him to the dark side."

Sakura cast a sideways glance at her friend, "You really do care for him, don't you?"

"Yes, but it's more like sisterly love than anything; besides, he likes Ginny, remember?"

On Monday morning, Harry and Ron were released from the hospital wing and to everyone's relief (except Lavender) Hermione and Ron had made up and were friends again.

"Thank God, everything's getting back to normal," Sakura sighed, one night in the common room as she saw Hermione offer to correct Ron's essay for Professor Snape.

"Is anything normal for you people?" Seto asked.

"Not until Voldemort's gone again there won't be." Harry said.

Hastily trying to change the subject, Sakura recalled what had been posted on the notice board. "Hermione, Ron, you and Seto and Ryou are so lucky you get to take the apparition test on the twenty-first of April with all the other of age people. And me, I have to wait until--"

Suddenly there were two loud cracks, and two house elves appeared. One was wearing a shrunken maroon jumper and a tea cozy for a hat that was slightly askew and the other had on merely a filthy rag that served as a loin cloth.

"Kretcher? Dooby? What are you two doing here?" Sakura asked. Yugi and Ryou left their homework and came over to see what was going on.

"Who are they?" Ryou asked.

"House elves," Hermione answered. "They do the house keeping, laundry, and cooking in the castle."

"The one with the tea cozy is called Dooby, and the other is Kretcher," Sakura finished, pointing to each of the elves. "Harry, why are they here?"

Harry hesitated before; he hadn't told anyone about setting a tail on Malfloy. "They were keeping an eye on Malfloy for me."

Sakura glanced over at where Lara had been doing homework. The teen rolled her eyes and packed up her homework, intending on going up to the girl dorms.

"Dobby hasn't slept for a week, Harry Potter," the tea-cozy topped elf said, his bright green eyes beaming with pride.

"Wow, Dobby, when you help someone you really help," Yugi commented.

Immediately remembering what always happened when Dobby "helped" him, gave Sakura a stare that said "Don't give him any ideas."

"Has either of you found out anything about what Malfloy's up to?"

"Master Malfloy moves with nobility that befits his pure blood," Kretcher croaked. "His features recall the fine bones of my mistress and his manners are those of—"

"You'd think that that elf was in love with Malfloy, wouldn't you?" Seto whispered.

Sakura elbowed him in the ribs. "That's not nice. Because of the masters Kretcher had before he was left to Harry, Kretcher is prejudiced against anyone who isn't a full blood wizard."

"They thought anyone who wasn't pure blood was trash?"

"Basically; you should have seen his reaction to me when he found out I was part-demon. He loathed me. You'd have thought I was some sort of criminal." She put up a hand, silently asking him to not ask any more questions while she listened to the house elves.

"Dobby, you tell me what Malfloy has been doing. Since Kretcher is so busy enlightening us on how wonderful Malfloy is."

"The Malfloy boy isn't breaking any rules that Dobby can discover, but he still tries to avoid detection. He makes regular visits to the seventh floor with a variety of other students, who keep watch while he enters—"

"The Room of Requirement!" Harry exclaimed, bopping himself on the head with _Advanced Potion-Making_. "That's where he's been sneaking off to. Come to think of it, I've never seen the room on the map!"

"Maybe the Marauders never knew it was there," said Ron.

"More likely it's the magic of the room," Hermione pointed out. "If you need it to be Unplottable, it will be."

"The Room of Requirement?" Yugi asked.

"It's a room on the seventh floor that has the magic to turn into a room to satisfy the seeker's needs," Sakura explained. "Not too many people know about it. Dobby was the one who told us about the room in the first place when Dumbledore's Army, a Defense Against the Dark Arts club we started, needed a place to practice under Dolores Umbridge's foul nose last year."

"You've done well, Dobby," Harry said.

"Kretcher too," Hermione added, kindly; however, instead of being grateful, Kretcher's gaze went to the ceiling. "The Mudblood is speaking to Kretcher; Kretcher will pretend he does not hear."

"Get off it," Harry ordered and Kretcher disappeared with a loud crack. "You should get some sleep too, Dobby."

Dooby bowed to Harry and vanished.

"We have him cornered now," Harry said.

"Sure we do," Lara muttered. "About as cornered as a cat who has a mouse backed up against the wall where the mouse hole is."

"But what's all this about several students going with him?" Hermione wondered. "How many people are involved in this? I doubt he'd trust lots of people to know what he's up to…"

"Yeah, it's weird," Harry mused, thinking it over. "I heard him telling Crabbe that it wasn't Crabbe's business what he was doing… so what's he telling these… all these…"

There was a _thump_ as Sakura pounded her fist on the table she and Seto were working at. "Polyjuice Potion!" she exclaimed.

The reality hit Harry like a ton ofcauldrons "You're right. There haven't been several different students accompanying Malfloy. It's just Crabbe and Goyle adding the hairs or whatever of different girls to the potion before they drink it. They're thick enough to do it, even if Malfloy wouldn't tell them what he's doing behind the doors of the Room of Requirement. The two girls I saw him with at the Quidditch match,"

"That girl whose scales I repaired," Hermione gasped.

"Those twerps I've seen on the seventh floor when I wander around the school sometimes in my free time." Sakura said. "They're all Crabbe and Goyle. No wonder they're so miffed nowadays."

"Well, they wouldn't object, would they?" Harry brought up. "Not if he's shown them his Dark Mark."

"The Dark Mark that we don't know exists," Lara pointed out testily, not looking up from her homework.

"We'll see," Harry told her confidently.

"Sure we will..."

Soon warm temperatures and increasingly clearer skies graced the grounds of Hogwarts, promising summer. "I can not believe how fast this year has gone by, Seto," Sakura sighed, nuzzling her boyfriend's shoulder.

Kaiba grunted in reply, not looking up from his Ministry of Magic leaflet—_Common Apparition Mistakes and How to Avoid Them_.

The two of them were outside by the lake, basking in the warm sunlight. Seto was sitting down with his back reclining against a tree while he read the packet. Sakura sat beside him, leaning against his body and her arms were wrapped around his body. One of her hands reached up and pushed leaflet down. "Seto, you've read through that stupid thing so many times I've lost count, you'll do fine, love."

"You wouldn't think it was stupid if you were taking the Apparition Test today," he retorted.

Sakura reached up and brushed some of his chestnut hair out of his eyes, the tips of her claws lightly grazing his forehead. "Seto, really; the worst that could happen is that you would have to take the test again."

"I'd rather just take care of it now and get it over with."

"Seto relax. Apparition is tough and besides if you do have to repeat it then, I'm going to be taking it and so will Harry and Yugi."

Kaiba glared at her. "Do you know how humiliating that would be? Me, having to repeat something like this, in front of Yugi, no less?"

"Well, you'd better pass that test then," Sakura spat as he got up to leave. "I don't think your precious ego could take the blow."

"Don't be like that, pet," Seto told her. He knelt down and cupped her chin in his hand. Leaning forward, he kissed her briefly then got back on his feet. "Wish me luck," he said, and he left her.

"That egotistical... I could just kill him sometimes." Sakura growled under her breath. She picked herself up from the ground and was about to go inside and get her things for Potions when she was knocked to the ground. Whatever had tackled her, growled and eight sharp claws dug into her flesh, one on her right shoulder and the other just an inch from the left side of her collarbone. She coughed as hot, smelly breath fell on her face. She drew a strangled breath and gazed into a pink mouth with sharp, pointed white teeth. Her hands seized the creature's jaws and tried to push him off of her, but it swiped a paw across her face making her grip slip and one of her left hand slid inside its heated mouth.

At the taste of flesh, the animal bit down hesitation causing Sakura's blood to fall inside its mouth and down her arm.

A yelp left Sakura's lips and abruptly pounded on the creature's skull, right between the eyes. Its grip on her hand and upper body lessened and her left hand wiggled free. Ignoring the pain in her bleeding hand, she grabbed a handful of fur in each hand and threw the creature with as much strength as she could.

There was the sound of ripping cloth and as Sakura got up off the ground she could see what she was fighting, a wolf. Its black hair shimmering in the sunlight and its yellow eyes gleaming as they poured into hers, her blood dripping from its lips. The beast charged again as the demon girl struggled to her feet, but as soon as it was barely five feet away from her, someone shouted, _"Sectumsempra!"_, and as the wolf jumped blood sprayed all over her from its face and chest as if it had been cut with a sword.

Jumping backwards to avoid it, Sakura watched as the bleeding body hit the ground. Her eyes felt as if they were popping out of their sockets with fear and her whole body was trembling. She looked up from the corpse and saw Professor Snape. Mind completely free of anything but panic, she screamed. "OH MY GOD!"

-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-

**(1)** Correct me if I'm wrong. The first was in Sorcerer's Stone after he faced Voldemort. The second was in Azakaban with the dementors showing up at the game. I don't think there are any more.

**Anaya's Creator: **Thanks for reviewing! (throws cookies to reviewers) Review again please!


	16. The Bloody Curse

**Anaya's Creator: **(Busy listening to _Wicked_ soundtrack)

**Kaiba:** (rips off her headphones) Hello! Introduce the new chapter, you Broadway obsessed geek! I'm not introducing it for you again.

**Anaya's Creator:** (yells) I AM NOT A GEEK! (hits him on the head) Though I am obsessed with Broadway music. Here are the reviews:

**Setoglomper: **

I am sooo glad you're back! (hugs)

**Adele S:**

Hey, I know you hate them, but they are so tempting to do. The dark side of authorism calls me!

**Arrathir:**

OMG! I cannot believe I did that! (Hits forehead) I'll have to fix it.

**Anaya's Creator**: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh, Inu-Yasha, or Harry Potter.

Chapter 16: _The Bloody Curse_

Professor Snape made his way over to Sakura who was still panicking.

"Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God!" Sakura said over and over.

"Yasha, come back to your senses," he grabbed her robes, which were covered in some of the wolf's blood, and shook her in an attempt to snap her out of it. She was scared absolutely witless. "Yasha!" _Slap!_ His hand hit the half of her face that wasn't cut.

Sakura shook her head for a moment and blinked. It took her a few moments for her to even register that he was there. "Oh, Sensei."

"Let's get you to the hospital wing. Madam Pomfrey will clean you up."

"What about the..."

Snape turned his attention to the dead wolf, pulled out his wand, and levitated it into the lake. "There, the squid and merpeople can enjoy it. Now come."

With the sensation of blood running down her face and hand, Sakura picked herself up from the ground and followed the professor.

When they stepped into the entrance hall, Tonks, one of the Aurors that was patrolling the school, came over to them. "Bloody heavens! Sakura, what's happened to you?"

"We were just training, Tonks. I'm escorting her to the hospital wing so she can get cleaned up," Snape explained.

"Alright then get going, but Sakura, take this." Tonks took her black cloak off her shoulders. "And make sure your face is covered; we don't want to cause a panic."

"Thanks," Sloppily, Sakura threw the cloak over her shoulders with her uninjured hand and put the hood over her head, hiding her face, then pulled the cloak tightly around her so no one could see the rips in it.

"Sensei, what was that spell you used out there?" Sakura asked as they resumed their walk.

"Sectumsempra; it is a powerful spell, Cherry Blossom. The chest of your victim bursts open and much of the blood spills from the body. It was very popular with the Death Eaters once."

"Why am I not surprised," Sakura mumbled.

"Never use it; it's powerful dark magic almost as bad as the Unforgivable Curses."

"Oh, believe me, I won't... ever."

Halfway there, however, Sakura smelled something peculiar not coming from her or Professor Snape. She took a deep breath. _Harry_? she thought. _Why are you following us? _

"I have a patient for you, Madam Pomfrey," Snape said as they reached the hospital wing.

Sakura lifted the hood of the cloak a bit so the nurse could see what had happened.

"Merlin's beard, get inside and let me have a look at those cuts." Madam Pomfrey stepped aside and let the demon girl into the infirmary.

"Her hand was bitten badly as well; you might want to look at that first." And with that Snape left.

"Take off the cloak," Madam Pomfrey instructed, shutting the door. "So what happened?"

"A wolf from the forest attacked me," Sakura explained as she took off her torn robe and unbuttoned her shirt, which, thankfully, wasn't torn, but had bloodstains on it from the animal's claws stabbing her chest.

"Hmm, you'll be needing a new robe then," the nurse murmured as she examined it. After putting it in her office, she spread a warm puke colored paste on the teen's face, shoulder, and collarbone. A prickling sensation irritated Sakura's skin and she knew the cuts were healing. "I'll give you the one that I was going to give you a week from now on the full moon, but you'll have to remember to not wear it when you transform."

"I'll try," Sakura said.

"No, you will," Madame Pomfrey corrected. "One new uniform a month, Miss Yasha, no more." She lifted the girl's bleeding hand, murmured something, and after a bit of stinging, Sakura felt her hand repair itself. "Go wash off," the nurse instructed. "And get that blood out of your shirt," She handed the girl a bottle of Mrs. Skower's All-Purpose Magical Mess Remover and left her alone.

Sakura wandered to the end of the hospital wing where there was a line of small bathroom stalls, applied the Magical Mess Remover to the stains on her shirt, and rinsed it off with cold water **(1).** After drying it, she peeled off the crust Madam Pomfrey's paste had formed into and in the mirror, staring back at her, she saw her face as good as new, not even a miniscule scratch was left from the attack. Ever since she had come into the Wizarding world, she never had gotten any new scars. All her wounds, from a clumsy fall, a fight, or otherwise, were healed almost instantly by magic using methods unheard of back in Japan. The only marks of an injury she had were on her bad knee.

As she contemplated this, her gaze traveled casually to her watch. Her eyes widened. Holy shit, was that the time? She was going to be late for Potions if she didn't hurry up! Sakura threw on her shirt, buttoned it up, not noticing that she screwed a few of them up, and ran out to the beds where Madam Pomfrey had laid out the robe. Then with a quick shout of thanks, she left.

After gathering her things from her dormitory, Sakura raced down the hallways as fast as her legs could carry her. "I'm gonna make it," she murmured to herself as her hasty footsteps echoed on the stone walls of the dungeons, but unfortunately as she stopped to catch her breath, just three doors away from her class room, the bell rang. "Damn it!" she cursed, pounding her fist into the stone beside her.

Professor Snape looked up from his desk when she finally entered the classroom. "And where were you, Miss Yasha?" he asked testily.

"I was on my way," she replied. She had gotten used to the fact that even though Professor Snape taught her outside of Potions, he would in no way lighten his bias towards non-Slytherins in class. Sighing, she took her seat and saw that there were only three others in the class with her, and all of them were boys; to be more specific: Harry, Ernie MacMillan, and Draco Malfloy.

"I hope you students realize that just because there are so few of us today, this will not be a day to relax." Professor Snape jabbed his wand at the board and instructions immediately appeared upon it. "Have this solution finished by the end of the class and no later."

Immediately, the tiny class got out their ingredients and began working. The minutes passed slowly by as Sakura heard her watch tick away. More than once she felt a pair of eyes on her, but when she lifted her head from powdering her spine of lionfish, or whatever she happened to be doing at that moment, to find out who they belonged to everyone would be focused on their work. Finally the bell rang, just as she finished her potion, she took a vial of it up to Snape's desk then emptied her cauldron and left with Harry.

"Harry, Sakura, Yugi, I passed!" Hermione announced as she and Britts, Ryou, Seto climbed through the portrait hole late that afternoon with Ron and Lara bringing up the rear, not looking too pleased.

"Well done," Harry said. He, Yugi, and Sakura had been sitting in front of the common room fireplace working on homework until their friends had arrived and were glad to have an interruption.

"How did the rest of you do?" Yugi asked.

"Passed," Britts answered.

"Me too," Ryou declared.

Sakura turned to Kaiba with a raised eyebrow.

"Passed," he admitted.

"HA!" Sakura exclaimed. She leapt up from her chair to go over to him, but as she swung her legs over the arm, her toes hit the arm and she fell onto the floor on her stomach. Everyone immediately began laughing, except for Britts.

"Sakura! Are you all right?" she cried, hastening over to her friend.

Sakura rolled over onto her back, laughing hysterically. "I'm... fine..." she managed to say between fits of giggling. "I told you... you were... going to pass...that test..." she said, pointing to Seto who was kneeling beside her as she began to calm down. "How did you and Ron do, Lara?"

"Failed," Ron confessed miserably, sinking into the chair Sakura had just fallen out of. "I left half a bloody eyebrow behind."

"You're in good company," Lara told him. "I failed by the skin of my teeth, literally. That examiner found one of my wisdom teeth left behind after I'd apparated. I was going to have Madam Pomfrey remove it anyway."

"Bummer," Yugi said.

As a result most of dinner was spent abusing the examiner with a round of cussing, kindly provided by Ron and Lara, which had improved their moods considerably by the time the group was heading back to the Tower.

"I have something to tell you guys," Harry said, gesturing to an empty classroom. "Snape was sneaking around the school with someone this afternoon while you all were gone," he said when they all had piled inside.

"Did you see who it was?" Hermione asked. "I mean it could have just been one of the teachers."

"Why would a teacher go around with a cloak on and their hood up in the school?" Harry inquired.

"Do you think it was a Death Eater or someone?" Ron asked.

"Don't be thick, Ron," Sakura grumbled as she rolled her eyes, immediately seeing where this was going. "Harry, that was me under the cloak," she interrupted. "Tonks lent it to me."

"Why?" Harry asked.

"Because a wolf from the forest attacked me, and my face and robes were all bloody."

"A wolf from the forest attacked you? When?" Seto demanded.

"It came out of the forest just after you left. I couldn't reach my wand to fight it. Lucky for me, Professor Snape was passing by and he killed it. The wolf had scratched my face and my robes were torn and covered with the wolf's blood from Snape's curse. As we walked into the entrance hall, we met Tonks and she lent me her cloak so some dumb sissy wouldn't see my injuries and start panicking."

They all gave her weird looks.

"Well, what would you do if you didn't know me?" Sakura asked. "You see a demon girl walking through the halls with blood dripping from scratches her face wearing torn robes that also had blood on them. What would you think?"

"I'd think you'd have killed somebody," Ron said, after a few moments of silence.

"Exactly," Sakura told him.

"You put things so bluntly," Yugi commented.

"And you notice this now?" Sakura retorted.

Late that night, a dark cloaked figure was sprinting out to the gates of Hogwarts. He slipped outside them and into Hogsmeade. Passing the numerous shops and bars, he made his way to the outskirts, walking deep into the woods beyond the town. In the shadow of the trees, the quarter moon's silvery light just slipping through the canopy of trees stood a big, gangling man with matted grey hair and whiskers. His black Death Eater robes were too tight for his body and he spoke in a hoarse voice similar to a bark. "Severus, to what do I owe this late pleasure?" he asked.

The cloaked figure dropped his hood. "One of your wolves attacked a student today, Greyback," Snape said. "At the school, when anyone could have been watching."

"Lucius Malfloy wants that girl dead, Severus," the man answered. "He's so concerned about his son not following through with the plan, I thought I'd just have one of my wolves from the pack in the forest kill her off."

"No one will lay a finger on Yasha until I have stolen the Jewel. Don't you realize your precious creature could have destroyed it, or worse absorbed its powers?"

"You'd better get that blasted thing then!" Greyback snarled. "The Dark Lord is getting impatient, Severus, he wants that Jewel and the Millennium Items. And once he deciphers those stupid tablets..."

"I know what will happen then, Fenrir," Snape interrupted, calling the other man by his first name. "I'm working on it, but we can't be rash or Dumbledore will get suspicious."

"Whatever you say, Severus," Greyback growled. "Is that it?"

"Yes," Snape put his hood back on and left Greyback's chilling presence.

The next day, Katie Bell had finally returned from St. Mungo's, claiming that she knew nothing about what had happened to her in Hogsmeade, with the exception that she had entered the ladies room at Three Broomsticks.

With Ron and Katie fit for the match the whole Gryffindor House was in high spirits for the next match. This one was against Ravenclaw. If Gryffindor won by over three hundred points, they would claim the Championship; if they lost by less they would be second to Ravenclaw. If they lost by one hundred points they would be third behind Hufflepuff and if, heaven forbid, they lost by more than one hundred they would be in fourth place, in the first rock bottom defeat in two centuries. It would be worse than being stuck between a rock and a hard place, take your pick.

The run-up to the Championship match had the usual features: members of the rival Houses trying to intimidate the other, jeering chants about specific players echoing throughout the corridors, team members strutting around the school basking in the excess attention or getting sick to their stomachs from the overdose of pre-match anxiety. Huge after-match parties were in the planning and excitement buzzed from every student in the school. It was nearly impossible not to be pumped up for this match.

Out of habit, on his way to dinner Harry made his usual bypass on the seventh floor to the Room of Requirement. Not seeing Malfloy anywhere after triple checking the seventh floor on his map, he assumed Draco was in the Room of Requirement yet again, but that's when his eyes spotted Malfloy's tiny labeled dot in the boys' bathroom right below him, accompanied by Moaning Myrtle, the ghost of a girl who had died in the girls' bathroom down in the dungeons fifty years ago.

Harry made his way to the boy's bathroom and he put his ear against it. He couldn't hear anything, what he wouldn't give for a few of Fred and George's Extendable Ears now. Silently, he pushed open the door.

The platinum blonde had had his head bowed and his back to the door. He was clutching the sides of the porcelain sink so hard his knuckles were white. His breath came in short, desperate gasps.

Harry remembered something he and Ron had discovered a while ago when they had seen Moaning Myrtle in this very bathroom.

Flashback 

"_I thought he liked me," she had told him and Ron. "Maybe if you two left, he'd come back again... We had lots in common... I'm sure he felt it..."_

"_When you say you had lots in common," Ron said, sounding rather amused now, "d'you mean he lives in the S-bend too?"_

"_No!" Myrtle exclaimed defiantly, her voice echoing deafeningly on the tile walls of the bathroom. "I mean he's sensitive, people bully him too, and he's not afraid to show his feelings and cry!"_

"_There's been a boy in here crying?" Harry asked. "A young boy?"_

"_Never you mind!" Myrtle scolded, her eyes fixed on Ron, who was trying not to laugh. "I promised I wouldn't tell a soul, and I'd take his secret to the—_

"_Not the grave, surely," Ron interrupted, unable to help himself. "The sewers possibly…"_

_Outraged, Myrtle let out a wail of anguish and dived back into the toilet, splashing water over the sides of it. _

End Flashback 

_People pick on him too…_ _Was Draco Malfloy the boy she had been talking about?_ Harry wondered.

"Don't," Myrtle cooed from behind one of then cubicles. "Please don't… Tell me what's wrong… I can help…"

"No one can help," Draco answered, his whole body trembling. "I can't do it… it isn't working… and unless I do it soon… He'll kill me…" Streams of tears were running down his pale cheeks into the sink. He gulped then looked in the cracked mirror and saw Harry staring at him.

Anguish replaced by rage, Malfloy wheeled around, drawing out his wand as Harry brought out his own. Malfloy's hex missed and smashed the lamp that was beside him.

"No! No! Stop!" Myrtle shrieked as Harry launched a soundless curse which Malfloy blocked. "NO! STOP IT!"

"_Cruci_—"

"SECTUMSEMPRA!" Harry bellowed before Malfloy could finish his curse.

Blood exploded from Malfloy's face and chest and he swayed back on to the floor, his wand falling from his hand.

"Oh God—" Harry gasped. "I—I didn't—"

But his objections were in vain as Myrtle cried: "MURDER! MURDER IN THE BATHROOM! MURDER!"  
The door banged against the wall behind Harry and Professor Snape burst inside. He rushed over to Malfloy and knelt over him, his wand over the deep wounds the curse had made. He then wiped the residue from Malfloy's face and repeated the spell. The wounds began healing.

Still present, Harry stared at his hands, horrified at what he had done. Myrtle still wailed and sobbed above him. Snape said the spell a third time and lifted Malfloy to a sitting position. "You need to go to the hospital wing," he murmured. "There may be some scarring, but if you take a dittany immediately we might be able to avoid it. Stay here, Potter." Snape helped Malfloy off the ground and escorted him to the hospital wing.

After that, Snape rushed to the library where he found Sakura with Seto. "Yasha! Hospital wing! Now!" he demanded.

"Why?"

"Now!"

Without question, Sakura leapt from her seat, gathered her things, and followed him, Seto accompanying her.

When they got to the hospital wing, three of them saw Malfloy on a bed.

"Oh God," Sakura murmured.

"Your blood, Yasha," Snape told her. "He needs your blood,"

-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-

**(1)** This actually works, cold water and soap gets out almost any bloodstain.

**Anaya's Creator: **End Chapter!

8


	17. In Which Several Things Happen

**Anaya's Creator: **Guess what, Seto proposed to me! (shows off new silver ring on left ring finger)

**Kaiba:** (jumps out of his chair) What! No I didn't!

**Anaya's Creator:** Just kidding, I just found a cool ring in Biology. Here the reviews:

**Adele S:**

Yep, I am evil aren't I? And just to prove it, there's another cliff hanger in this chapter.

**Setoglomper:**

I still love your username. It rocks my fuzzy socks.

**Anaya's Creator**: (gives reviewers cookies) I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh or Inu-Yasha or Harry Potter. If I did, I would be more influential because I would actually have something called money.

Chapter 17:

"My blood?" Sakura asked. "Why?"

"His blood needs replenishing," Snape answered.

"Then why can't he just take a Blood Replenishing Potion?"

"We're missing an ingredient, but your blood will compensate for that."

Hesitantly, Sakura rolled up her sleeve and held out her arm.

"Sakura, you're offering life to the spawn of your mortal enemy, know that?" Seto told her.

"I know, but enough people have lost their lives to Lord Voldemort. Even though he is my enemy, the more life that can be preserved the better."

Snape grasped her arm firmly, found the vein he wanted, and slashed it with a sharp knife. Sakura tried her best to muffle a groan as the metal pierced her skin, but Seto, who had his arms around her, still heard it and tightened his hold on her to soothe her. Snape held the goblet of potion underneath the gash he had made and squeezed the cut, forcing some blood into the goblet. After stirring it a few times, he went over to Malfloy, held him up, and helped him swallow it until Draco had drowned all of it.

"Miss Yasha, what have you done to your arm?" demanded the voice of Madam Pomfrey as she came out of her office. "You were just in here a few days ago!" Without any further questions, the nurse took Sakura's arm and pointed her wand at it. Sakura winced slightly as she felt the familiar prickling sensation of her skin sewing itself back together.

As Madam Pomfrey attended to the albino, Seto saw, out of the corner of his eye, Snape's wand aimed at Sakura's neck, exactly where the Jewel of Four Souls rested. His hand left his girlfriend's middle as he whirled around, knocking the professor's wand to the floor with a _rattle_ and cast his infamous glare directly into Snape's dark eyes.

"Seto, what is it?" Sakura asked, trying to see why Kaiba had let go of her and where the sound had come from.

Snape's now empty hand landedon Sakura's shoulder, a soft expression formed acrossSnape's face. "Thank you, Miss Yasha," he crooned as if this had been his plan the entire time. "That was a noble thing you did just now, helping me save Mr. Malfloy."

Thrown off by this sudden air of formality, "Sure," was all she could think of to say.

Seto laced his arm tightly around her waist, pulled her away from Snape, and began forcing her out of the infirmary.

"Seto, what was that?" Sakura asked angrily.

"When Madam Pomfrey was fixing your arm, Snape was trying to steal the Jewel."

"Seto, please, how long are you going to keep this up? Snape isn't trying to take the Jewel. He would have done it long ago; he's had myriads of opportunities since my first year."

"He was just waiting for the proper moment. Harry told me that Malfloy was looking very pale in Potions class while the rest of us were doing Apparition, with the exception of you and Yugi. Whatever Malfloy's up to, Sakura--whether he's doing it for Lord Voldemort or not--it's going wrong. And if he is doing it for Lord Voldemort, this would be the perfect time for Snape to take the Jewel."

"Voldmort came back two years ago, Seto. If Snape is working for Voldemort, he had all last year to take it."

"I wasn't here last year, so I can't tell you why he didn't take it then. But what matters is that he's trying to take it from you now and, Sakura, I..." Seto gently grabbed her upper arms and pushed her against the wall of the corridor they were in, his sapphire irises pouring deeply into hers. He bent down so that they were almost nose to nose. "I love you," he confessed. There he had said it, but for some reason it didn't seem enough to leave it at that. "I love you, and I don't want to lose you or see you hurt."

"Seto," Sakura began, but she couldn't seem to say anything. It seemed that they would ruin this one moment. So she reached up and kissed him fiercely with all the passion and love she could muster, anything to let him know she felt the same way. Nothing could ruin this moment for her, that is, until she realized the toes on her right foot were tingling as if they were being poked at with several needles at once.

"Seto," she murmured, interrupting their kiss.

Seto let out a "hmm" to let her know he was listening as his lips moved to her cheeks and hairline.

"You're standing on my toes," she told him.

"I won't say 'I told you so'," Hermione said, an hour later in the common room.

"Leave it, Hermione," Ron pressed angrily.

"I was afraid that book would bring us bad news sooner or later," Lara murmured. Strangely, after Harry had told the Quidditch team he couldn't play in the match on Saturday, she hadn't given him a broken nose or anything of that nature like he had expected her to since she, like the rest of the team, had been furious that he could no longer play in the match on Saturday. Luckily, Ginny could take his place as seeker and Dean would cover for her as Chaser. "All the relatively harmless curses and the cheats for potions in it were pretty cool, but a spell that nearly kills your victim... that's going too far."

"Snape used that spell once," Sakura added coldly. "When he rescued me from that wolf that was the spell he used to kill it."

"Oh, so it's all right for Snape to cast it, but it's not all right for me," Harry growled.

"I didn't say that. Snape used it on an animal," Sakura retorted, her tone not changing. "You used it on a human; big difference."

"It wasn't on purpose," Harry pleaded. "It just came out. I wish it had never happened and not because of the detentions. You guys know I wouldn't have used that spell if I had known what it could do. It's not my fault, but it isn'tthe book's either."

"Harry, how can you still defend that book?" Hermione asked irritably.

"From the sound of things," Yami interjected, tired of listening to the conversation through Yugi's ears and not having any input of his own. "Malfloy was about to use one of the unforgivable curses. It was lucky that Harry had a good curse ready to pull out of his wand."

"You call a curse that practically kills its victim good, Yami?" Seto snarled.

"You know a lot about killing people, don't you, Kaiba?" Yami replied heatedly **(1)**.

"Will all of you just shut-up?" Britts exclaimed throwing the book she had been trying to read for the past few minutes to the floor with a loud _SLAM!_ "Enough about that stupid book! It had a spell in it that Harry used, but he didn't know what effect it would have on Malfloy when he used it, end of story! Now please shut-up about it!"

Aware that the whole common room was now staring at them, thanks to Britts' out-of-character outburst, Ryou dared to try and change the subject to a less controversial one.

"Sakura, why did Snape suddenly pull you off to the hospital wing?"

"Malfloy," Sakura answered. "An essential ingredient was missing for his Blood Replenishing Potion so my blood had to cover for it."

"That's not right," Hermione pointed out. "What ingredient could your blood possibly replace?"

"I don't know. That's what troubles me."

The day of the match, the Gryffindor Quidditch team put on their game robes in silence. The absence of their captain had caused a strange hush to settle over them. (Harry was downs in the dungeons with Snape, rewriting Filch's records of mischief-making.) Sakura noticed that the usual adrenalin rush she always had before a match seemed to have switched places with an anxiety rush, giving her hands an awkward feeling of numbness that made it difficult for her to put on her uniform. She doubted she would have enough control to hold on to her broomstick, much less pelt the Bludgers around the field.

"Come on everyone, pull yourselves together!" Ginny shouted when she noticed the team members' expressions. "This is the last match of the season; we can still win this thing!"

"She's right. We came up from being the underdog team last year. I can't see why we can't do it again," Lara pointed out.

"Now let's win this," Dean said vehemently, putting out his hand.

Everyone put their hands on top of his.

"Remember, we have to win by three hundred points," Katie reminded them.

"And best of luck to us all," Dezmelza Cassy told them. The team broke the pact and walked out to the field.

Sadly, Luna Lovegood was not commentating on this match nor was Zacharias Smith; it was some kid they didn't know. "And there's the Gryffindor team: WEASLY, CASSY, THOMAS, BELL, CAROLE, YASHA, AND WEASLY! Unfortunately they had to bring back their substitute chaser, Dean Thomas, so Ginny could replace their seeker. We know last year Gryffindor came up from behind when they lost some of their best players, can they do it again?"

**(A/N: ALL CAPS equal the commentator.)**

There were the predictable cheers from the Gryffindor section and loud boos from the Ravenclaws. As Madam Hooch released the Snitch and Bludger, then she picked up the Quaffle and threw it into the air.

"AND THE GAME BEGINS!" the commentator shouted.

The players instantly scattered across the field, buzzing off in different directions like an army of bumblebees fleeing a can of aerosol.

"CASSY HAS THE QUAFFLE. SHE'S SPEEDING TOWARDS THE GOALPOSTS USING HER USUAL LIGHTER THAN AIR, UNPREDICTABLE AGILITY. SHE THROWS THE QUAFFLE AND—OH, TOO BAD, CAUGHT BY THE RAVENCLAW KEEPER. BETTER LUCK NEXT TIME GRYFFINDOR."

The Ravenclaw keeper threw out the Quaffle and this time one of the Ravenclaw Chasers caught it. He passed it to one of the other Chasers, who passed it to the third, and she passed it back to the original. Together, the three Chasers flew close together passing the red ball between them, flying to the Gryffindor goalposts in an arrow's head formation. Seeing this, Sakura motioned to Dean who nodded.

He flew between all three Chasers who scattered, dropping the Quaffle. Katie Bell caught it and raced to the goalposts. Seeing a Bludger coming at her, she passed it to Dezmelza and Dezmelza scored.

"GRYFFINDOR SCORES! TEN TO ZERO!" The crowd erupted into a mixture of hisses and roars of approval.

Finally, after what seemed like hours of fouls, scores, and intercepted plays, Gryffindor was almost above Ravenclaw by one hundred and fifty points. Ginny spotted the snitch out of the corner of her eye and prayed that Cho did not spot it until Gryffindor had scored again. One more goal, plus the catch of the snitch would win Gryffindor the match by the three hundred points required to win the cup.

Seeing a flash of blue in pursuit of the tiny golden ball with wings, Ginny knew her prayers had been in vain and joined the chase. Gryffindor's victory was almost in their grasp; she couldn't let Cho snatch it away. She was thirty feet away… twenty… it was no use, Cho was still miles closer to the snitch than she was. Suddenly, a Bludger came out of nowhere, causing both girls to swerve their brooms to avoid it. Ginny looked around for the snitch once more, but it had vanished.

"Foul to Gryffindor!" Madam Hooch declared.

"CHASER KATIE BELL LINES UP TO TAKE THE FOUL" the commentator began, but instead of watching the foul to play out, Ginny kept her eyes peeled for the snitch, so she would be ready to chase after it if Katie scored. Bell had never let the team down on a foul that she could remember.

"KATIE BELL SCORES!"

Hastily, Ginny scanned the field for the golden ball. Where was that flying walnut with wings when you needed to find it in a hurry? There it was, roughly ten feet above the Gryffindor goalposts. Ginny raced towards it, zigzagging across the field to throw off Cho who was following her. She ducked as someone flew above her, her eyes not leaving the snitch for a moment. Reaching out, she caught it.

"GINNY WEASLY CATCHES THE SNITCH! GRYFFINDOR WINS!"

Several of the Gryffindor fans leapt to their feet, applauding, screaming, and pounding on their seats. Once again, Gryffindor had pulled themselves from underdog to Quidditch champions!

When the Gryffindor team reached the common room, there was an explosion of cheers and celebration as they walked into the throng. People were constantly giving them handshakes and handing them bottles of butterbeer or handfuls of crisps or peanuts. Sakura spied Seto sauntering towards her and she ran in his direction and jumped into his arms, her feet leaving the floor. Their lips crashing together as she kissed him forcefully.

"Good job at the match today," he complimented as he put her down.

"Wow, a compliment, that's rare," Sakura retorted as her boyfriend laced his hand around her waist.

Kaiba said nothing and led her over to a pair of abandoned armchairs near the fire. As he sat down he pulled her onto his lap, groaning as her ass made contact with his thighs. "Did you know you have a really bony ass?" he asked, putting his free hand on her thighs.

"You're the one who wanted me to sit here," Sakura reminded him unsympathetically. "Butterbeer?" she offered, holding out her unopened bottle someone had handed to her.

Kaiba reached out to accept it, but she pulled it out of his reach, opened it, and took a long gulp. "Get your own," she told him once she had swallowed.

When Harry returned the common room from his detention with Snape, he received the same warm uproar as the team did. Both Lara and Ginny ran over and gave him huge hugs (no, he and Ginny did not kiss).

"A toast," Sakura proposed, lifting her half-empty bottle of butterbeer. "To one of the best teams Gryffindor's ever had!"

"Hear, hear," the throng echoed.

"I found Prince!" Hermione announced days later while every one was in the common room, relaxing. She pulled out a piece of very old newsprint out of her pocket and placed it in front of Harry.

He picked up the crumbling article and looked at the yellowed picture.

"Read the caption," Hermione instructed.

"Eileen Prince, Captain of the Hogwarts Gobstones Team," Harry read aloud. He stared at Hermione for a moment and burst out laughing.

"What is so funny?" she demanded.

"You think she was the Half-Blood?" Harry asked through his laughter. "Be serious, Hermione."

"She is being serious, Harry. There are no princes in the Wizarding world," Lara said.

"So it'd have to be a nickname, a made up title like Tom Riddle's new title: Lord Voldemort, or someone's actual name," Hermione finished. "If her father was a wizard whose surname was Prince, and her mother was a Muggle, then that would make her a 'half-blood Prince'!"

"Or vice versa, the mother could have surname Prince and decided to keep her last name," Sakura added.

"Listen Hermione, it's not a girl," Harry argued. "I can just tell."

"Oh, so you don't think a girl would have been clever enough?" Hermione pressed angrily.

"How could I have hung out with you, Lara, Britts, and Sakura for five years and think girls aren't clever?" Harry retorted, stung by her harsh words. "It just isn't a girl."

"Well, I'm going to look up more on Eileen Prince if I can," Hermione said irritably.

"Good luck with that," Sakura told her.

Unfortunately for Harry, there was glorious weather outside of the dungeons and several people spent their time out on the grounds, soaking up the sun's rays as they studied for upcoming exams, teasing the giant squid, or just moseying around doing nothing in the fresh sun-warmed grass.

One late afternoon such as this just before dinner, Sakura was standing by the edge of the lake, skipping rocks. Seto and Mokuba were sitting about five feet away, studying.

"You're the one who should really be studying over here, Miss I-forget-everything-as-soon-as-I-see-the-word-test," Seto said.

"Seto, if I have to memorize one more step to a transfiguration method or one more potion ingredient today, my head is going to explode!" she retorted, sending one of her rocks for four jumps.

After skipping her tenth rock across the surface of the lake (three long jumps) she heard someone walking over to her.

"I bet I can skip a rock for more jumps than you," Mokuba challenged.

"I'd like to see that," Sakura said, egging the kid on.

Mokuba bend down to the sand and fiddled with the rocks until he found one that he was satisfied with. After running his fingers over the smooth surface one last time, Mokuba flung the rock. It skipped not once, not three times, but SEVEN times until it dropped into the middle of the lake.

Sakura blinked several times to make sure her eyes were still working. She did not just see that.

"Seven skips, let's see you beat that, Sakura," the eleven year old jeered.

Sakura picked up a stone and threw it. It skipped only four times, but it went much farther than Mokuba's did.

"Ha! Only four, I win! You owe me another one of your bags of jelly beans."

"Excuse me! That wasn't part of the challenge," Sakura retorted. "Besides, mine went farther."

"But that wasn't the challenge. It was who could get the most skips."

"Come on children," Seto told them, picking up his bag. "Come get your bags; we should go up for dinner."

Laden with their bags, the trio headed up the castle, not knowing the huge adventure they would go through that night.

That evening, Harry raced past Hermione and Ron who were seated together in the common room. "What does Dumbledore want?" Hermione asked, but he didn't answer. He just went right up to the boy's dormitory.

Upstairs, Harry saw Yugi lying on his bed, writing a letter. "What's the rush, Harry?" he asked as he watched the other boy dive into his trunk, pulling out his invisibility cloak.

Harry didn't answer and as he sped back down the stairwell, Yugi followed him.

"I've got to be quick," Harry told Yugi, Ron and Hermione when he got back downstairs. "Dumbledore thinks I'm getting my Invisibility cloak so listen up." He explained to them what was going on, not pausing for Hermione's gasps of horror or Ron and Yugi's hasty questions.

"So Malfloy is going to have a perfect opportunity to go through with whatever he's up to. Hermione, Ron, round up all the D.A. members and Yugi you tell Ryou and Seto. See you lot when I get back."

Harry raced through the portrait hole and towards the entrance hall.

"All right, let's round up the troops," Hermione said.

"Everyone, drink this," Lara instructed, passing around small cups of a glimmering golden liquid, barely a spoonful in each. After Harry had left, Hermione, Yugi, and Ron had managed to round up Ginny, Neville, Luna, Sakura, Lara, and Britts along with Seto and Ryou and they all met in a deserted classroom, talking in hushed voices.

"Wait a minute Lara, what is this stuff?" Sakura asked, nervously eyeing her cup as Stitch, whoclung to her shoulder, took a sniff of the potion.

Recognizing it immediately, Hermione spoke up," Lara, how did you get your hands on it?"

"Won it, from an old bloke down in Hogshead ages ago. The senile old fool had no idea what kind of card player he was up against."

Sakura still looked perplexed.

"It's Felix Fleicis," Seto explained. "It will make us lucky. This should just be just enough to keep any of us from getting killed if one doesn't do anything stupid."

"Just a little ray of sunshine, aren't you, Kaiba?" Ginny commented.

"Cheers," Britts said, and everyone drank.

"He's right actually," Lara said, smacking her lips. "In a worst case scenario, we're going to be facing Death Eaters here. We need all the luck we can get."

"We should all split up," Ron suggested.

"Seto and I will go to the Room of Requirement and if anything happens there, we'll let the nearest Auror or teacher know," Sakura said.

"Or just raise a big ruckus that's sure to attract attention," Ginny pointed out.

"The rest of us will patrol the corridors," Luna said in her dreamlike voice.

"All right, let's go," Lara exclaimed. "When you feel the heat of your coin, the Death Eaters are here, be on your guard."

-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-

**(1)** This is refering to the manga, particularly during the Duelist Kingdom series. In I think book 4 or 5, Kaiba forces the men who were in his helicopter w/him to jump into the sea. He also takes Croquet for a hostage.

**Anaya's Creator: **Mwa, ha, ha, ha, ha, evil cliff hanger! I'll update a.s.a.p. Review and I'll try harder.


	18. Night of the Dark Mark

**Anaya's Creator: **This is the second to last chapter!

**Kaiba:** What a relief.

**Anaya's Creator:** Here the reviews:

**Adele S:**

You're going to Japan for 3 months? I hate you. I wanna go there. Please try to review. It would be heavily appriciated.

**Setoglomper:**

Oh, yeah, his birthday was Tuesday, wasn't it? (Glomps him) As to the fan-girls, he's just so hard to resist.

**Anaya's Creator**: (gives reviewers cookies) I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh or Inu-Yasha or Harry Potter.

Chapter 17: _Night of the Dark Mark_

Leaning against the wall in cautious silence, Seto and Sakura stood near the Room of Requirement on the seventh floor with Stitch watching the deserted corridor **(1) **with them. They had been keeping watch for an hour and Draco Malfloy still hadn't come out of the Room. In one of Sakura's hands was her D.A. coin ready to activate and the other held her wand. There was a _creek_ and the door to the Room opened. Malfloy silently slipped out, holding a shriveled arm that made Sakura's stomach squirm by just looking at it. "Boo," she said plainly when Draco looked their way.

Malfloy's hand plunged into his pocket and threw a powdery substance into the air. Instantly, everything went crow feather black. It was now definitely the worst-case scenario.

"Stitch, follow them," Sakura ordered as she activated her coin and slipped it into her pocket as it heated up. She could hear several footsteps clamoring down the hall.

"_Lumos_," Seto said.

"Don't waste your breath," Sakura told him. After groping around in the darkness for a while, she found his hand and began leading him out of the darkness (banging into a suit of armor and a few statues along the way).

"What happened back there?" Seto asked her as they reached a lighted corridor.

"Malfloy used Peruvian Darkness Powder. No spell could light that hall up." She took a huge sniff in the air. "They're headed to the Astronomy Tower."

"You got their scent?"

"That's right,"

As soon as Seto and Sakura reached a lit up corridor, they ran into Lupin, Tonks, and Bill Weasly, but Sakura didn't stop to chat.

"What's going on here? What are you two doing out of bed?" Tonks demanded as Sakura raced past them.

"Death Eaters in the castle," Seto said, pausing briefly to explain to the adults before following Sakura again. "Sakura's got their trail; they're headed to the Astronomy Tower."

Without any further questions, the wizards followed the teens. When they caught up with Lord Voldemort's supporters, they were at the base of the tower. Sakura saw a big, gangly man with grey whiskers bearing down on Stitch and she slammed him against the wall. "Pick on someone your own size for once, Greyback," she growled.

"Oh, like you?" he snarled back, pushing her off of him and pinning her down to the floor with his bony knees digging into her thighs. His clawed hands tore at her robes.

Sakura tried to punch him, but he seized the arm, twisted it and forced it to the ground, and with a sickening _crunch_, he had broken it.

A complete donnybrook broke out amongst the Death Eaters and those loyal to Dumbledore. Death Eaters cornered everyone severely outnumbering Seto, Sakura, Bill, Tonks, and Lupin until more help arrived moments later.

Seto tried to force his way through the crowd to get to Sakura, still trapped on the floor by Greyback. One of the werewolf's hands was at her throat and one of her arms lay unmoving at her side. He had to help her.

"_Impedimenta!_"

Kaiba was two paces from the demon girl and Greyback when he was thrown against the wall.

"You're not going anywhere, handsome," jeered a stocky woman whose head came to about Seto's shoulder.

Even with a broken arm, Sakura still struggled beneath the untransformed werewolf. His heated breath made her gasp to find oxygen amongst his foul breath as he leaned down to her face. It smelled of his previous meals of animals and the human blood he had spilt. She had to force herself not to vomit so she wouldn't choke. "It seems Draco was right about you, you do possess some beauty. But since you won't become a werewolf if I bite you, I'll just have to kill you."

Sakura could feel her own transformation coming on as Greyback's hand on her throat tightened. Her pulse was rushing; the familiar pain of her transformation was becoming evident. Greyback raised his other clawed hand, but someone kicked him off her before he could do anything with it.

"Go find someone else to bite, Greyback," Bill growled, aiming his wand at the werewolf.

Sakura scrambled off the ground and went over to help Seto. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Malfloy run up the stairs and Neville Longbottom running after him and decided to follow.

"Where are you going?" Seto demanded, blocking a curse.

"Following Malfloy and Neville,"

But as soon as Longbottom reached the stairs, a few seconds after Malfloy had, he was thrown up into the air. _Well, can't take that route,_ she thought. Spying a window, she whistled to Stitch, clumsily dodging a curse that burned a hole in her robes. As soon as Stitch had climbed through it, she carefully followed latching her unbroken arm around her pet's middle. Since she was considerably less than three hundred times his size, Stitch easily carried her up the side of the tower **(2)**. It took a while longer than simply taking the stairs would have, but since Malfloy put some sort of barrier at the base of the stairs what other option did she have to choose from?

Quite a scene greeted her gaze when she looked into the Astronomy Tower. The Dark Mark shone in the sky above the turret like a sickly green constellation in the sky and inside was Dumbledore held at wand point by Malfloy with a small crowd of three Death Eaters behind him, Greyback, the woman who had been fighting Seto, and a man that could have passed for her brother, a lumpy, brutal-faced man. She had seen downstairs fighting the others; they must have come up the stairs while she and Stitch were climbing. She could also catch a whiff of Harry, but couldn't see where he was. _He must be under his Invisibility Cloak_, she thought.

"Now, Draco, quickly!" demanded a brutal-faced man angrily.

As her gaze traveled to Malfloy, Sakura noticed that he was shaking so violently, it looked as though his wand would slip out of his hands before he could even utter a spell. The very thought of doing whatever he needed to do seemed to petrify him.

"I'll do it," Greyback snarled impatiently, ready to pounce as soon as the word was given.

"I said no!" shouted the brutal-faced man, blasting the werewolf off his feet.

"Draco, do it or stand aside—" screeched the woman who was standing behind the brutal-faced man. At that exact moment, a newfigure joined the party, Severus Snape.

"We've got a problem, Snape," the brutal-faced man explained. "The boy doesn't seem able—"

"Severus," interrupted a soft voice.

Sakura's jaw dropped when she realized who had said that. For the first time, her uncle was pleading. Suddenly she realized what was going on: Dumbledore's life was hanging in the balance; it was all hanging on Snape's next move. As much as Sakura wanted to interfere, to say something that might put a stop to this, her voice seemed lost in the depths of her throat. Her body was frozen to the window she was clinging to thanks to her fear and the cold atmosphere of night. She couldn't do a thing.

Snape said nothing, but shoved Malfloy out of the way and gazed at Dumbledore.

Sakura read his expression perfectly. Every time she ran into Lucius Malfloy he looked at her with the same glare, one of revulsion and hatred. She instantly knew what was going to happen and she was too petrified to stop it.

"Severus... please..."

But Snape took no notice of the headmaster's pleas. He raised his wand and said the dreaded words: _"Avada Kedavra!"_

"NO!" Sakura screamed.

A jet of green light lit up the tower, but when it had cleared, it wasn't Dumbledore who was lying dead, it was Stitch. He had jumped from the window to block the curse. And Snape was looking right at Sakura. "We need to get out of here, now!" he ordered.

"I trusted him," she murmured darkly as Snape retreated, stepping down from the window.

"We all made that mistake, my dear," Dumbledore said comfortingly.

"Then why are we letting him and the other Death Eaters escape?" Harry said, finally throwing off his Invisibility Cloak.

"Good point," Sakura replied and she and Harry stormed down the stairs. _"Petrificus Totalus!"_ Sakura cried, hitting the first Death Eater she saw, not caring who it was.

Dust filled the pair's nostrils as they jumped the final ten stairs. Half of the ceiling was now littered across the corridor and the battle Sakura had left was still going on.

"_It's over,"_ shouted the voice she now hated to hear. _"Let's move!" _That voice fueled her to run even faster.

"Sakura, what happened up there?" Yugi asked as she passed by.

"No time to chat," was her answer as she kept sprinting through the maze of allies and foes, not pausing for anything. That is until she realized she didn't know if the Death Eaters were headed for the seventh floor or the entrance hall.

Harry soon caught up with her, skidding on the blood that had splattered his shoes as he did so. He pointed out a blood print on the floor that showed the Death Eaters were headed to the front doors.

Sakura nodded and mounted the banister as Harry went down a shortcut. At the end of the stairs, she launched herself off the railing with her good hand and rolled across the floor and onto her feet. She'd probably have a bruise there from the hard landing. She could feel her body aching to transform, but she fought that instinct and forced herself to stay human. As she flew out onto the grounds she could see two of Voldemort's supporters ahead of her and Harry running ahead of them. A gigantic figure lumbered out of the hut on the grounds, Hagrid had joined the chase as well.

A streak of light burst from one of the Death Eater's wands and hit Harry. He fell to the ground, but didn't stay there. Rolling over, he cast a counter jinx that stopped bothand was back on his feet, chasing after Snape and Malfloy.

Fire burned in Sakura's chest, her legs, feet, and broken arm had gone numb and so had her head from focusing so hard on not transforming. The scent of blood filled her nose, her blood; one of the blood vessels in her nose had burst from her concentration. Her legs refused to run anymore, no matter how much she willed them to. One of her feet hit her shins and she went down and, unlike Harry, she stayed there, face down in the grass, no longer possessing the strength to get up. This was too much, if she pushed herself any more, she would become a full-demon and all would truly be lost. She could only listen to bits and pieces of what was going on as she struggled to stay conscious.

The sound of something being set a flame filled her ears. "Fang's in there, yer evil—!" she heard Hagrid shout.

"_Cruc—"_

"No Unforgivable Curses from you Potter! You haven't got the nerve or the ability,"

There were more shouts of spells, Hagrid's yells, the wild, desperate yelps of Fang. This reminded her of the night when she fled Hogwarts with Hagrid the previous year in the middle of the Astronomy O.W.L. There had been so much shouting. So many bolts of light, Umbridge and her lackeys were trying to stun her and Hagrid as they fled. The night had been so dark, as black as a crow feather, just like now.

"DON'T CALL ME A COWARD!" she heard Snape cry.

For a few moments, all she could hear was the crackling of a fire until Harry shouted "HAGRID! SAKURA!" Then all was black in her little world.

Warmth, soft tender warmth was being rubbed over her cold hands. Fingernails were running through her hair. She was lying on something enormously comfortable. An impossible thought entered her mind as a smile teased the corners of her mouth. "Mom?" she murmured. "Dad?"

"Not quite, my dear," a soothing voice told her.

Slowly, and with much effort, Sakura opened her eyes. One of Professor Dumbledore's hand was on her head, his fingers flowing through the strands of hair that had fallen out of place and his other was stoking her freezing hands. His blue eyes were soft upon her. For a moment, she was ten years old again, lying in her bed at their cottage, and he was soothing her after a nightmare she had dreamt. "Please tell me that this was all just another bad dream," she begged. "Tell me it wasn't real." Her throat was dry and every part of her body ached from the strain she had put it through.

"I wish I could, my dearest, I truly wish I could," he murmured. "Madam Pomfrey fixed your arm and you're going to have a few bruises up your side, on your arm, and your neck for a little while until they heal, buthow are you feeling otherwise?"

"I don't know," she answered vacantly. Now that everything was slowly coming back into focus, there were thousands of emotions raging within her. It was hard to decipher which emotion she felt more. Rage? Sorrow? Betrayal? Horror? Disgust? It was all too muddled together. "How are the others?" she inquired.

"Bill's not doing so well, he and Greyback went at each other wand and paw after he forced Greyback off of you. He'll survive and won't become a full werewolf, Madam Pomfrey says, but he'll have some of the characteristics. Neville Longbottom was taken care off and the same with everyone else. They're all back with their classmates. Bill is the only one still here. Mr. Kaiba wanted to remain here until you awoke, but I persuaded him to go back to Gryffindor tower until you awoke so I could talk to you privately. The whole school knows what happened, not the fine details, of course, but they know why the Dark Mark was over the school and why we no longer have a Potions Master."

Sakura felt her face contort in anger. "Why?" she demanded, an infuriated growl in her voice. "Why did Snape betray us? Why did he try to kill you?"

"Malfloy was trying to do so all year on Lord Voldemort's orders. I believe Snape tried to finish the job for him so he wouldn't be harmed by Lord Voldemort. Granted, Voldemort will be furious with both of them for not finishing the job."

"Seto was right the whole time. He never trusted Snape. He kept telling me over and over that Snape was trying to steal the Jewel from me and that I shouldn't trust him."

"It's not your fault, dear heart, you felt safe to give him your trust because I did. We were all fools."

The albino was quiet for a few moments until she remembered what else had happened on the tower. "What about Stitch? What did you do with him?"

"His body is now in a box of honor in my office. It's up to you as to what happens to it. I thought since he was your companion, you should be the one to decide."

"He'll start to stink up your office if we just keep him in that box," she pointed out blatantly. "So I think I'll just have a private bonfire for him once I'm out of here. We can bury his ashes back at our house."

"Also, do you want to go through what you and I have been discussing these past few months when I've been here?"

"Yes, it would make things less dangerous for us all."

-8-8-8-

"Uncle, where were you and Harry last night? Why weren't you here?" Sakura asked as she and Professor Dumbledore stepped into his office after Madam Pomfrey had discharged her that evening once supper was finished.

"That is a long story, my dear, one that is too long for now," he answered, handing her a box made of mahogany.

Sakura did not need to lift the heavy lid to know what was inside; she knew this was Stitch's coffin. "Well, it's a long walk down to the grounds, you can tell me then and..." she paused, finding it hard to finish her sentence.

Dumbledore put an arm around her shoulders. "I'll tell you once we're outside. Stitch deserves a few moments of silence," he told her and the two of them walked out of the office in revered silence.

Out on the grounds, Sakura and Dumbledore built an altar of sticks and other kindling, set the box upon it and together, put it ablaze. Fawkes sang a soft mournful tune as the box and body slowly burned to smoldering ashes and Dumbledore told his niece the story of what he and Harry had done the night of the Dark Mark.

He told her about the cold and wild waters they had to swim across to get to the vicious cave. Of the treacherous lake full of dead bodies they had to cross. About the emerald potion he had forced Harry to force fed him that had made him to envision his worst nightmares and feel the excruciating pain within them. How the bodies had risen from the lake as soon as Harry had touched the water when trying to fetch him something to drink. And how worried he had been when the Dark Mark had appeared above the school.

There was a moment of silence between the two of them once the story had concluded. As her uncle took a deep steadying breath, Sakura could see just how old he had become since the start of this year. His eyes were less intense; his wrinkles had become more prominent, they cast a spider web of intersecting shadows across his pale face; and most of all, his left hand was still black and unhealed.

They allowed the fire to burn out then gathered the ashes and placed them in an urn Dumbledore had produced from within his robes. It was the same color of Stitch's fur, adorned with gold trimming with a few sapphires set into it.

"Are you coming to bed?" Dumbledore asked when they had finished.

"In a little while, I want to stay out here for a bit longer," Sakura answered, gently cradling the urn in her hands, watching the fading rays of the sun playing on the surface of the jewels and hiding in the gold etchings.

Her uncle kissed the crown of her head. "It's going to be all right," he told her soothingly. Then he took his leave.

"Come out, Seto, I know you're there," Sakura declared when the headmaster was out of earshot.

"My scent?" Seto replied as he stepped out of the shadows of the castle.

"How could I miss it?"

Seto didn't answer, just wrapped his arms around her.

After a few moments, Sakura broke away from his embrace. "Seto, there's something I need to ask you."

"What is it?"

"Would you still love me if I became human?"

-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-

**(1)** Stitch can see in the dark. This is in the movie.

**(2) **This is in the movie also, Stitch can lift things three hundred times his size.

**Anaya's Creator: **Another cliff hanger! Oh, question: do you want a sequel? The more reviews I get, the more likely there will be one! Just press the purple review button, damn it!


	19. I've Always Been Human

**Anaya's Creator:** Last chapter! (sniff)

**Kaiba:** (says sarcasticly) Oh darn.

**Anaya's Creator:** Here the reviews:

**Adele S:**

Hi from the US! I imagine he would be. Read on to find out!

**Setoglomper:**

Read the chapter and see. Enjoy!

**Zuko's 1 and Only:**

Well, you hit the nail on the head. Do you want a sequel?

**Anaya's Creator**: (gives reviewers cookies) I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh or Inu-Yasha or Harry Potter.

Chapter 18: _I've Always Been Human_

"W-what?" Kaiba stammered, stunned that she had proposed such a ridiculous question.

"Will you love me even if I become human?" Sakura repeated.

Seto was speechless; unable to believe she would think her becoming human would change anything. One of his arms snaked around her hips and he crashed their lips together. His tongue barged into her mouth, drawing a pleased growl from his girlfriend's lips as he savored her sweet mouth.

It happened so fast Sakura would have dropped her precious urn if Seto had not reached out his other arm to help her support it. She loved when he was rough with her like this. It made her hungrier and drove her to retaliate with all the zeal she could muster, but as she began to return the kiss, he tore his lips away.

"Does that answer your question?" he asked breathlessly.

Sakura nodded, her lips parted and swollen from the kiss. She shook her head slightly to regain her composure. "Let's go inside. It's starting to get nippy out here."

"Good idea," Seto agreed, keeping his one arm around her waist as they walked to the stone steps of the castle.

Once back in the Gryffindor Tower, Sakura went up to her room and placed the urn in her trunk, wrapping one of her older shirts around it so it wouldn't break. She then dashed back downstairs and sat down with her boyfriend on the couch.

"So, you've decided to use the Jewel to become human?" Seto asked her as she climbed into his arms, settling between him and the back of the couch.

"Yep, it's been in the planning for a few months now. Uncle's going to take me to Japan as soon as everyone leaves the school tomorrow. We're going to take a portkey. I'll say goodbye to my relatives in the feudal era for the last time and then, after coming back to the present, I'll use the Jewel to become human. The portal will be sealed up and the Jewel gone for good."

"That's it?" Seto remarked, slightly stunned by the simplicity of what she was planning. "You don't have to do a complicated ritual or anything?"

"Not unless we want to make this more complex then it needs to be."

"Great. No more monthly transformations."

"I'll be human."

"No more fierce temper."

"Nope, that's here to stay. My personality shouldn't change, but Uncle says that my knee might be healed and straight again."

"Good, you'll be taller."

"Not by much, I just won't be limping, but I'll probably be a better dancer so you're toes won't hurt as much while you teach me. You're coming back again next year, right?"

"Dumbledore didn't tell you?"

"Tell me what?"

"The governors might be closing Hogwarts after this year; it all depends on their decision. Several students have already been taken out by their parents."

Sakura's jaw dropped as she sat up. "They can't close this school. Hogwarts is my home. Where will I go next year if not here? What'll happen to the teachers? What about the other students? Where will they finish their schooling if not here?"

Kaiba put a finger to her lips, silencing her. "While you were out of it, your uncle said that regardless of this incident, the school should remain open if there is at least one student who wishes to learn. All the teachers agreed with him and that's what they presented to the governors. I don't know if any of the students from here are coming back next year, but I am and sois Mokuba, Yugi, and Ryou."

"Good, 'cause I don't want to be the only student here. I'd be so lonely without you and the others, especially you."

On some subconscious impulse, one of Kaiba's hands traveled to the crown of Sakura's head and stroked one of her furry ears.

A deep throated purr rippled from the albino's vocal chords. She moved on top of him, straddling his hips, and began ferociously kissing him. Her tongue forced its way through his lips, swirling around his tongue and exploring everything she could reach.

The C.E.O. tried to put up a fight with her tongue but was forced to retreat as she became rougher and more passionate the more he caressed her ears. He groaned as she moved from his mouth to his throat, her hot tongue leaving steaming moist trails in its wake.

Sakura's hands traveled to his robes and unfastened it and then moved to his shirt. Her fingers quickly undid the buttons and eagerly pushed the material away from his chest. Blushing in anticipation, her palms ran eagerly down his sculpted torso, her claws lightly brushing against his skin, not scratching him, but creating enough sensation to make him moan in delight. She bent back down to his lips and crashed them together with a bruising force. Suddenly realizing she was losing her grip on her demon instint, she murmured, "Seto, stop please," as she moved to his neck.

"Stop, you're the one that's doing all this." He felt her fangs brush against his neck, her hot breath causing all his nerves to stand on end.

Her hands traveled up his arms to his hands which were still massaging her ears and seized his wrists, slamming them against the arm of the couch. "I meant that!" she growled.

"You seemed to like it well enough," Kaiba pointed out, letting out a hiss of pain. Her grip was tight and having his wrists hit the arm of the couch was not pleasant.

"Sorry," Sakura apologized, letting go of his wrists. She got off of him and sat on the floor. As he sat up, she took one of his wrists in her hands and gently rubbed where it had hit the arm of the couch. "Of course I liked it when you touched my ears like that," she explained. "That's one of the most sensitive places on my body. But if you had continued touching them so, you would have had a pretty black bite mark on your neck as a souvenir. It's demon instinct, to mark a mate or enemy. My mother had a mark like that, but she said it didn't hurt her. When I asked her about it, she said symbolized the same thing that human wedding rings do. On enimies, it's very painful andsymbolizes that you've made it one of your goals in life to kill him. The bite mark on his hand is why Lucius Malfloy hates me so. After he had killed my parents, he set the shack that hid the well on fire, holding me back so I could watch. His hand was covering my mouth, muffling my screams. Hagrid showed up and Lucius wouldn't let me go so I bit his hand.'

"In my second year at Hogwarts, he showed up here with his house elf, Dobby. Dobby worked for the Malfloys before Harry set him free and Dobby came to work here in the castle. He saw me and told me I'd pay for what I'd done when he killed my parents. He took off one of his gloves and I saw the hand I had bit. It had gone all black and the puncture holes were still there. And it looked like it really hurt. That's why he wants to kill me."

"Just because you bit him?"

"Yep, guess it was a huge blow to his ego that a ten-year-old kid gave him a lasting injury."

"And people think I'm crazy for holding a grudge against Yugi for him beating me at Duel Monsters."

"Lucius Malfloy's grudge may be warped, but yours is just plain childish." Sakura stared into the fire for a few moments, contemplating what to say next. "Come on, we should go up to bed. The train's leaving tomorrow at eleven o'clock sharp anda twelve hour flight to Japan tomorrow, you'll need our sleep."

"You know, you and Dumbledore could come with me on my jet. There's plenty of room to spare for two extra passengers," Seto told her as they walked to the stairs.

"Good idea, I'll talk to him tomorrow after breakfast about it."

-8-8-8-

"Remember Harry, Uncle and I are going to pick you up in a week and bring you to the Order of Phoenix," Sakura called as Harry walked away with the Dursley's (his mother's sister's family).

"I won't forget," Harry yelled back and he left King's Cross Station.

"Why is _he _going to the Order this summer?" Seto asked,jealousydripping from his words.

"He's going to help Sakura and I track down Voldemort's other Horcruxes this summer," Professor Dumbledore explained. He had considered Kaiba's offer and had come along on the train with his niece. "Hopefully, we'll be able to track down most of them before the summer is out. That would make it all the easier when we confront Voldemort for the last time."

Pushing their trolleys, Seto, Yugi, Ryou, and Mokuba walked out of King's Cross Station with Dumbledore and Sakura to a limousine that was waiting for them. Kaiba had called ahead on the train.

"Guys, something's just occurred to me," Yugi said when they had piled into the limo. "Won't all our school stuff look strange going through customs?"

"Indeed," Ryou agreed. "I don't think they'll let our wands and magic books go through security without explanation."

"We won't have to deal with that. We're flying on my jet, remember?" Kaiba pointed out. "And if there's one thing I hate, it's the super-tight airport security. It may make normal people feel safe, but, for me, it's nothing but a waste of time."

"Airport security?" Sakura asked, clueless.

"Security guards at airports scan luggage and flight passengers for things such as bombs, guns, and other muggle weapons, dear. It's to prevent someone from committing a violent act on the plane," Dumbledore told her.

"Why would someone want to do that? Kinda stupid place to do it really."

"Why does Voldemort go prancing around the Wizarding World killing everyone that opposes him?" Seto inquired.

"Don't know, I ask him when I get the chance."

"You've never been on a plane before, have you, Sakura?" Mokuba asked.

"Nope, seen them, but never set foot in an airport."

"Then how did you come to London when you were young? **(1)**" Yami asked as he appeared in his transparent form beside Yugi.

"Using a portkey, of course."

At the airport, Sakura could not stop looking at the huge planes outside the windows of the airport. "They're so huge," she exclaimed, eyes wide. "It's a wonder how muggles get these things off the ground without magic."

They boarded the plane and everyone got into their seats. "Your attention, please, we are going to lift off in about five minutes. Please fasten your seatbelts," ordered the captain's voice from the loudspeaker.

The jet ran smoothly down the runway and gracefully left the airport behind. Sakura didn't dare look out the window as the scenery below them shrunk as the airplane rose higher and higher. She was already queasy and knew that vomiting on the fine plush seats in her boyfriend's aircraft would not be a wise thing to do.

A bit of static sounded over the speakers before they heard the captain's voice. "Please make sure you have your seatbelts fastened. We'll be encountering some mild turbulence for a few moments."

_Oh great, _Sakura thought. Her nausea did not ease as she felt a warm hand wrap around hers.

"Are you feeling okay?" Seto asked her, seeing her pale face.

"Just a little sick to my stomach."

He offered her a bottle of water. "Need a drink?"

"I think so." She opened the bottle of water and took a sip, only to spray it all over her lap and the carpeted floor when the plane started to jostle and sway in the wind.

"Good thing it was only water," Seto muttered.

Sakura's eyes closed tightly as she grasped her boyfriends hand desperately in an attempt to keep the cauldron cakes and chocolate frogs she had eaten for lunch from spilling out of her.

"Pet, your grip... too tight..." Kaiba hissed through gritted teeth.

The albino opened her eyes and noticed that Seto's hand had gone white from lack of circulation. "That's something you won't have to worry about once I'm human," she croaked, trying to remain humorous in this situation that utterly terrified her. Her grip loosened and she took deep breaths to try andcalm herself.

The sign above them finally flashed green showing that the passengers could unbuckle their seatbelts. Sakura quickly unfastened hers and dashed frantically to the restroom, instantly dropping to her knees and emptying her sugary lunch into the porcelain toilet. Thoughts swam in her head and she felt for a moment as if she was going to faint, but then she vomited once more.

A few dizzying moments later, she exited the dim cramped room and nearly ran into Seto, who was just out side the door.

"Airsick?" he taunted.

"Oh shove it," Sakura retorted bitterly, leaning against the wall for support. She was still dizzy from tossing her cookies. "Where can I get some Headache Emulsion around here?"

"I don't have that, but there's some aspirin in the kitchen."

"That'll do."

Seto looped his arm around her to support her and half lead, half dragged Sakura to the kitchen. Dumbledore was already there, holding a double-decker sandwich of tomatoes, lettuce, ham, cheese, and mayonnaise.

"My dear Sakura, are you all right?" he asked, putting down his sandwich before he could takea bite. "You look pale."

"I don't think airplanes and I mix, Uncle. Do you have any Headache Emulsion with you?" She pulled herself away from Kaiba and leaned against the counter.

"Of course, my dear," Dumbledore reached into his robes and pulled out a small violet glass bottle.

Sakura took the bottle, uncorked it, and took a mighty swig.

"Don't take in too much," her uncle cautioned. "It'll knock you out in a heartbeat."

"I just need to be conscious long enough to make it back to my seat," Sakura replied woozily, setting down the bottle. She teetered slowly through the narrow hall back to her seat and collapsed into it just as the medicine kicked in.

When Seto sat in his spot next to her, he leaned down and pulled the lever that reclined her chair back so she could lie more comfortably. Some of her hair had fallen out of place. His hand drifted up to the stray strands and gently put them back into place.

"She's really changed you, know that bro?" interrupted a voice from next to him.

Kaiba twisted around and saw his little brother had sat beside him, playfully swinging his legs from the too high seat of the chair. "How do you mean?"

"You're kinder, a lot more like how you used to be, before Gozaburo."

After twelve long, painstaking hours the captain finally announced that they would be landing in the town of Domino. Once they had touched down, Seto noticed that Sakura was still asleep. The Headache Emulsion had knocked her out for the whole trip.

"Sakura, you need to wake up," he said, shaking her.

"I don't wanna," she groaned, turning the other way in her seat.

"The flight's over."

Sakura's eyes snapped open. "Really, it's over?"

"Yep,"

"Thank God," Sakura jumped out of her seat and dashed out the door into the walkway. "Uncle, we are so taking a portkey home," she told him as she passed.

Outside the airport, Yugi ran to meet his grandpa and friends, who were waiting for him at the entrance. After exchanging "So glad to have you back" and "We missed you so much" greetings as well as one of Tea's friendship speeches (which mand Sakura want to barf again), the group left with Ryou tagging along.

A limousine pulled up and as the chauffeur put their belongings into the trunk Dumbledore, Sakura, Seto, and Mokuba piled into the roomy back seat.

"Uncle, could we visit the Feudal era later? I'm really tired," Sakura whined as she sprawled out over one side of the auto.

"That's what you get for swallowing so much Headache Emulsion," Dumbledore chastised. "If you had wanted to sleep for the rest of the trip you should have said something and I would have given you a sleeping draft."

"So what's your answer?"

"No, you'll just have to sleep it off until we get there."

"Damn."

"Watch your mouth; there's no need to cuss."

With a soft growl, Sakura snuggled her face into her folded arms and fell asleep, moving occasionally.

About ten minutes later, someone was proding her arm. "Come on, sleepy head, it's time to go to the Feudal era." Rubbing her eyes, Sakura pulled herself off the leather seating and out of the limousine.

After he got out, Dumbledore poked his head back inside the vehicle. "I don't know how long this will take so you boys should go home. We'll meet you there."

Kaiba saw the seriousness in Dumbledore's light blue eyes and knew the professor was right. "Take us back to the mansion," he ordered the driver, closing the door as Dumbledore went to catch up with his niece.

Memories rose amongst the dust that stirred by her feet as Sakura walked up the stairs to the ash heap that had once been her home for the last time. Now there was no snow and she could see the true extent of the damage. There was less ash than she had expected, she wondered how much of it had blown away with the happy times she had once known with her parents. Soon she stood at the mouth of the chasm that contained the Bone Eater's Well, she stared down into the center where the well stood waiting for her, symbolizing another happiness she would loose. She was about to jump into the hole when a peculiar thought flooded her mind. _Why? Why was it she and/or Harry whose life was put in danger or whose happiness had to be sacrificed for the better?_

It was Harry who had faced Lord Voldemort in first year on the third floor corridor. Not a year later it was the two of them who had gone down into the Chamber of Secrets when Gildory Lockhart had been so quick to bail. Harry and she had driven away the dementors in third year then Hermione and Sirius Black had passed out and Ron was her injured to move. Harry had been forced to risk life and limb in the Triwizard Tournament during their fourth year when one of Lord Voldemort's supporters had put his name in the Goblet of Fire. In fifth year, Dolores Umbridge had taken the blunt of her unquestionable devotion to the Minister of Magic and persecution of half-humans out on the two of them. Why should she sacrifice being able to see what little family she had left for the sake of these pitiful humans?

"Is everything okay?" Dumbledore asked, interrupting her thoughts.

"I was just thinking. Uncle, why is it always Harry and me? Why must we always bell the cat for these mortals who are too dumb or lazy to do it themselves?"

"That is one question, my dear, I'm afraid I cannot answer," he answered. "Perhaps one day you will figure it out. Do you still want to do this?"

Sakura thought for a moment, looking around her at the destruction the Death Eaters had done to the temple, but she wasn't just looking at the temple grounds. She was looking across her whole life, scared and burned all because of the Sacred Jewel. She saw small trees and other plant life jutting out of the black dust. To her, they seemed like omens of hope, foreshadowing good things to come. She realized that in spending almost her whole life surrounded by humans, she had become one of them, maybe not her body, but her soul and mind. "Wait here for me. I shouldn't be too long." She jumped down into the chasm, swung her legs over the well and jumped inside.

-8-8-8-

_Knock, knock!_

The white front door to the Kaiba mansion opened without a sound, exposing a short butler. The fluorescent lighting bounced off his huge bald cranium. He peered at Dumbledore and the cloaked figure behind him. "May I help you?" he inquired, his voice dark and raspy.

"I am Albus Dumbledore and behind me is my niece, Sakura," Dumbledore explained over the sound of the rain. "Master Kaiba **(2)**, should be expecting us."

"He is," the butler hissed. "Come in, and I shall tell him that you two have arrived." He moved aside and Dumbledore and Sakura stepped inside the white front hall, rainwater dripping of their cloaks and onto the red carpet beneath them. The butler turned and walked up the huge stairs.

"How did those two boys get this gigantic house?" Dumbledore asked Sakura as he peeled off his plum cloak.

"They inherited it," she answered, not removing her red one. "From their stepfather."

"Hmm,"

A few minutes later, Seto and Mokuba had arrived at the top of the stairs. "Sakura, Professor, I'm glad to see you both made it here," Seto greeted as he and his little brother began walking down the stairs.

"The rain was a bit of a setback, but it didn't interfere with much," Dumbledore replied.

Sakura's declawed hands threw off the hood of her cloak. No longer was she leaning to one side with her limp, she stood an erect half-inch taller and human ears stuck out from under her unbraided jet black hair.

"So what do you think?" she asked, her amber eyes glittering.

"Lovely," Mokuba told her as he reached the bottom of the stairs.

"Thanks Mokuba."

The boy grabbed her hand. "Come on, you wanna play video games?"

"Sorry, Mokuba, I can't," Sakura apologized sincerely. "Uncle and I are going back to Hogwarts now. We just came by to say our goodbyes."

He dropped her hand and ran off into the other room, pouting.

"Maybe I could come over some other time," she called after him. Guilt darkened her cheerful face.

Seto put a hand on her shoulder.

Sensing the couple should be alone for a few moments, Dumbledore spoke up. "I'll wait for you out on the porch, Sakura."

Once Dumbledore had left them alone, Seto pulled Sakura into his arms.

"I like this new you," Seto told her, threading his fingers through her onyx locks.

"I do too, but the downside is that I can't hear or smell as good as I used to. It stinks."

Chuckling at the pun, one of Seto's hands wrapped around hers, entwining their fingers as he bent down and kissed her with all the passion he could. "I love you, mitsuki."

"I love you too."

For a moment the two simply stood there in each others' arms, not saying anything; the sapphire and tawny of their eyes reflecting mutual love, desire, and the wish not to be apart, even if it was to be for only three months.

"I'll send letters with Fawkes," Sakura whispered as if speaking any louder would ruin the moment. "To keep you and Mokuba posted."

"Please come here again, at least once."

"I'll try." After one last kiss, she broke away from his embrace and, pulling on her red cloak, walked out the door.

"Grab on," her uncle instructed when she had stepped outside. He was holding out the bottle of Headache Emulsion.

Sakura grabbed on and instantly the Kaiba mansion melted into a whirl of color and indistinguishable roar of sound. She felt the familiar sensation of being hooked up by the seat of her pants as the portkey carried her along. Finally, the spinning of reality ceased and she was standing in her uncle's office back at Hogwarts.

"Now," she heard her uncle say. "Let us gather all the information we have on Voldemort's Horcruxes so we are ready for Harry when he comes here at the end of the week."

The End!

-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-

**(1)** They used a portkey to get to Japan over break.

**(2) **This is an honorific, duh.

**Anaya's Creator: **Extra long chapter! So I should get more reviews right? Just press that small purple button, it isn't that hard!

It's right here:


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